Treats from Ty Dye Exotics!

Over the past couple months I've gotten some more goodies from Ty Randall at Ty Dye Exotics! 😊 

First off, I got a good group of Cubaris sp. "Panda King - White Out". AKA sp. "White Panda", though I resent that labeling as it makes it sound as though it's a different species entirely, when it's really just the "White Out" morph expression in sp. "Panda King". Even more strictly speaking, "White Out", "Yeti", etc. morphs in which the entire body (even the eyes) are white are likely just representative of some form of hyper leucisim, and so should simply be referred to as "Hyper Leucistic" IMO rather than come up with more fanciful and at times confusing morph names... but, I digress.

I have them set up in a moderately ventilated enclosure with an inch or so of Zilla Jungle Mix, sand and clay (I ran out of coco fiber lol), topped with leaf litter and bark. I'm keeping them humid at at around 75F°. Feeding dog food in addition to the leaf litter.

Here are some pictures of them:

They've already started breeding rather prolifically, no surprise with this species. 😂 I've already made them available actually!

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Next up, he also sent me a group of Cubaris sp. "Blue Pigeon". Now, a lot of Cubaris spp. and isopods in general just aren't done justice in pictures, and I'm often pleasantly surprised by how much prettier they are in person. Unfortunately, the opposite was true for this species, they are a rather boring grayish tan color, with just a very, very slightly glaucous blue coating on older individuals that haven't been kept very damp. Shoulda just been called sp. "Pigeon" or something IMO, but again, I digress. 🙃

I have them set up in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch or so of coconut fiber substrate, topped with leaf litter and bark. Keeping two thirds of the enclosure humid, the rest dry, and have them at around 75F°. Also offering dog food in addition to the leaf litter.

Here are some pictures:

Not the prettiest Cubaris species out there, but they're still kinda cute, and I don't regret asking for them. 😄

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Next up, Cubaris sp. "Cute Honey Tiger". Now these are a very neat little species with some pretty coloration, I would say the "Cute" moniker fits them very well. 

I've got my half a dozen individuals housed in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch of coco fiber substrate, topped with bark and leaf litter. I'm keeping two thirds of the setup humid, one third dry, have them at around 75-80F°, and am feeding dog food as the supplemental diet.

Here are some pictures of the cuties:

A very nice little species, hopefully they'll do well in my care.

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I also got a group of Cubaris sp. "Sabah, Malaysia",  which (no surprise), isn't actually a Cubaris species, and may actually be a Filippinodillo species (but further confirmation is still needed). This species is quite easy to breed from what I hear, so hopefully I can establish a colony with little issue. 😄

I've got my dozen or so individuals housed in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch of coco fiber substrate, topped with bark and leaf litter. I'm keeping the setup relatively humid, have them at around 75-80F°, and am feeding dog food as the supplemental diet.

Here are some pics of them:

A nice species with what I'd call "camo" patterning, fingers crossed they'll breed well for me!

EDIT 4/5/24: Benny Kästle has confirmed this is indeed a Filippinodillo species.

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Lastly, he sent me a nice group of Polyphaga aegyptiaca "Sinai" nymphs, a starter of Porcellio silvestrii, and yet ANOTHER group of Cubaris sp. "Blonde Ducky", because I can't breed that species to save my life apparently. 🙃 So uh, 3rd time's the charm for the Blonde Duckies... 😂

Anyways, that does it for this post, big thanks to Ty for hooking me up, as always. 😁 Thank y'all for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you folks next time! 😉

Coelus & Porcellio Updates, & a Look at My Collection

My Coelus ciliatus are doing great, and apparently can pupate in the same enclosure as each other rather successfully, as long as deep enough substrate is provided, with a moist area in the enclosure. Lots of new teneral adults have been popping up in my main enclosure, which is nice! Lots of adults and larvae in the enclosure right now, these guys are quite easy to care for!

Here are a couple pictures I took of a few of my adults, (and a larva):

When I first got this species, I did not expect they would do so well in captivity, I am glad I was wrong! 😊 They seem very easy to keep, like Coniontis, wish that Eusattus were as easy to breed...

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I have some good and bad news about my Porcellio silvestrii. Good news, my pregnant female gave birth to a dozen or so mancae! Bad news, all my other females and one of my males have died. 😭

I really don't know what went wrong, the dead females all seemed to be fully intact, so it does not seem territorial cannibalism or any malnutrition is to blame, they had a corner kept moist at all times, so I doubt that lack of humidity was the problem, (however, two of the females died in the moist corner...), and I'm pretty sure they had enough hiding places as well. The male had his uropods and part of his face chewed off, and he was the runt of the males, so I'm pretty sure that was territorial cannibalism, which happens sometimes with the Spanish species.

The temperatures have risen a little bit in the past couple weeks, so maybe that could have caused the deaths, I would have expected that they would all have died if the temps got too high though. Plus, there are some Oniscus asellus enclosures right above them, that species is really sensitive to high temperatures, and I haven't noticed any die off in their enclosures. Oddly enough, the other females never got gravid in my care, the only one that survived is that one that was gravid, so maybe they had some weird illness from the get go, still doesn't seem right though.

Overall, I'm pretty stumped, no idea why they all died off like that. I removed three of the males from the main enclosure, leaving just one male in with the last female, as I don't want them to stress her out too much. Just thought I'd let you know how things were going with them.

On the plus side, while looking through the P.silvestrii enclosure, I found a young Porcellio scaber with unusual coloration! Hopefully it retains the white patches by it's rear when it matures, and hopefully it'll produce similar looking offspring once I mate it with a normal individual, (since that's what it's gonna have to come down to, as I can' find any others that look like it).

Here are a couple pictures of it:

Hopefully I'll be able to isolate this morph, it's quite an attractive individual!

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My collection has grown quite a bit in the last few months, so I thought I would take some pictures of my "bug closet", just to show you guys what it looks like now!

Here it is, in all it's glory!:

Really pushing the limits as to how many containers my shelves can hold! 😄

Anyway, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope you all enjoyed, got some new invertebrates coming this week, so stay tuned for some new posts about them! See you all soon! 🙂

Beetles, Isopods & Centipedes Oh My!

So, after a few years, my Coelocnemis have finally been identified as C.californica by Tenebboy on Bugguide, thanks man! 😁 Sadly, I am now down to a single male, I have had him for almost three years now, he is the longest lived beetle I have ever kept!

Took some pictures of him the other day, here he is:

Really love this species, maybe one day I'll go back to where I collected these ones and try getting some females again, I would really like to successfully breed this species in the future!

In other Tenebrionid related news, I dumped the contents of my Eusattus muricatus enclosure out a little while back, to see if all four of my remaining larvae were still alive, and found that one of them had pupated and eclosed into a perfect adult beetle! I was quite surprised, as not only was I not expecting any of them to make it to adulthood, but I definitely did not expect them to pupate in the same enclosure as each other!

The remaining three larvae were still alive and well, so I removed the adult and placed it in my Coelus ciliatus enclosure temporarily while I wait for the remaining three larvae to pupate, as their current enclosure is much more humid than the adult would probably like.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the cutie!:

Hopefully the other three larvae will pupate and eclose soon, really would love to get another generation from this species going! Would also really like to get pictures of the pupa of this species, so I will be checking on them more often in the hopes of catching one as a pupae before it ecloses.

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My Porcellio ornatus "South" have actually grown a surprising amount since I received them, they haven't got that much bigger, but they are certainly growing faster than I anticipated! I had them housed in a rather small enclosure before, but have now moved them to a larger enclosure with some bark hides, which I'm sure they'll love.

Here are some pictures I took of them recently:

They don't really like staying still, and the flash on my camera makes them look more reddish than they really are, they are more grey than they appear in these pictures. Really can't wait until these are fully grown, hopefully they'll breed well in their new setup!

Unfortunately, one of my Porcellio silvestrii females died of unknown causes, seemingly while molting, so now I'm down to three females total, and five males. 🙁 One of the females is pretty gravid though, and looks ready to pop soon, so that's good. 🙂

Anyway, here are some pictures I took of them:

That last picture shows off the gravid female, if you look closely you can see her abdomen is yellow and distended quite a bit, a sure sign of a gravid isopod, hopefully I'll be seeing mancae in the enclosure soon!

And lastly for isopod related news, just wanted to report that my Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatian" culture is doing great! (The new morph name was suggested to me by Laura Mae Riepl). I rehoused them to a larger enclosure recently since they had outgrown the little deli cup I had them in before. They are definitely breeding true, I am so thrilled that this morph can be isolated, and that my culture is breeding well!

Here are some pictures I took of them the other day:

Can't wait until this colony gets as big as my other Oniscus culture, it will be quite the sight! 😊

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My Scolopendra longipes is doing great, so far it's eaten a superworm pupae and two adult male Hemiblabera tenebricosa! I haven't actually seen it eat anything yet, as it usually does so in the dead of night, all I find are the remains of it's prey. It's gotten even more thick now, and still spends most of it's time underground, so getting pictures is no easy feat.

For example, the other day I went to get some pictures of it, so I dug it up, and it promptly clambered out of the enclosure and ran under my bed, took me a few minutes to recapture it, all the while my mom and sisters were watching in horror... needless to say, I don't think I'll be digging it up anymore!

Here is the one decent picture I was able to snap of it, unfortunately with it's head in the ground:

Such a big and beautiful specimen, I am in love with it! 😁

Anyway, that's gonna be it for this toady, I hope you guys enjoyed, will see you all next post! 🙂