Pseudoglomeris Updates

Well I figure I'll start this post off with some bad news, since the rest is very positive. Unfortunately my Pseudoglomeris aerea colony has been crashing hard, and I'm not sure why. They may have been affected by pesticide poisoning last year, and were just hardy enough to resist it up until now, or something went wrong with their diapause. Either way, they're not doing so hot, and I got down to an adult female, and 1.2 subadults (with the male looking quite unhealthy).

I had sent a group to Brandon Maines last year, and he has only lost a few so far (mostly due to pest issues, which he's since taken care of), and has at least one adult male already. So, it made the most sense to me to just send my remaining group to Brandon, since his are doing better under his care, and with this group being more female heavy it'd surely be a boost to his colony. Hopefully if/when his breed, he can just send me a replacement group. Fingers crossed this works out well, and we can keep this species going in the US hobby cooperatively.

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Now onto the good news! My Pseudoglomeris magnifica "Kunming" have all matured now, I've just been slow on getting pictures of the adult females. In the time it's taken me to get photos of them and edit them though, TWO of my females have already given birth! 😃 So that's awesome LOL, hopefully the babies do well, and hopefully my other two females pop soon as well.

Here are some pictures of the females, plus a couple crappy phone pics of one carrying babies:

Female carrying nymphs

Such a pretty strain, some Chinese strains are very dull, but this locality in particular is rather vibrant for the Copper form of this species, with a nice green iridescence on some individuals. 😁 Hopefully I'll have tons soon, and will be able to distribute them in the US hobby. 

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Next up, I got a NEW Pseudoglomeris magnifica strain from Northern Vietnam, courtesy of Angela Winnick at Am I Bugging You. Now this strain is the same size as the Chinese magnifica strains usually are, but they have the more minute exoskeleton punctations typical of Vietnamese magnifica. Their coloration is a pretty vibrant Green-Gold rather than Green-Blue or Copper, really pretty looking in person. 😍 

Angela sent me three adult females, (they're presumably WC, the whole import probably is), and all three have already given birth!!! 😁 I have them set up in the typical magnifica fashion, good ventilation, third of the enclosure humid with semi-frequent mistings (due to the abysmal air humidity in my area). Vertical cottonwood bark hides, dog food fruits and pollen/artificial pollen for food. I'm keeping them at 75-85F°, and no diapause should be needed IMO for this strain based on their location.

Here are some pictures of the females, along with a couple grainy phone pics of one holding a ridiculous amount of nymphs... 🤣 

Female carrying nymphs

Such a beautiful strain, I'm glad I already got some offspring from them in such a short time. 😄 Hopefully the babies grow up strong and we can get this new strain established in culture! Big thanks to Angela for giving me the opportunity to work with this line!

Well, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉 

Pseudoglomeris, Moth Flies, & Hairy Fungus Beetles!!

Well, it's almost time to bring my inverts in diapause back out into the heat, and so I've been keeping them closer to room temperature over the past week, to wean them back onto warmer temps. 

One such species is my culture of Pseudoglomeris magnifica "Kunming, Yunnan, China - Copper". Seemingly as a result of the slightly warmer temps, two of my subadult males have matured already, and I've got a sub female who's looking like she'll molt soon as well (most of the other females are further behind in development for some reason, as well as the other males). 

One neat thing about this strain is their bright coloration compared to the other "Copper /" Chinese localities sold by vendors (like the ones on MyHomeNature). These "Kunming" are a much brighter copper color, with hints of lime green iridescence on the exoskeleton. They're quite beautiful, though unfortunately my camera often dulls their coloration greatly, unless they're out of focus for whatever reason. 😅

So, here are some pictures of one of the males, most of the pictures that are actually in focus dull his coloration a lot, so I included some out of focus images I'd normally delete, just to show off more accurate coloration:

A beaut, isn't he? 😍 Looking forward to having a mature female soon as well, and then hopefully they can get to breeding!

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My Setomima nitida have been doing fantastic, and are surprisingly quite popular for such a niche invert. 😁 

Anyways, I realized I've never taken pictures of their larvae before, so while packing some up for a customer a couple weeks ago, I rectified that:

I find the larvae cute, for a maggot at least. They don't revolt me like the larvae of Phorid flies and House flies and the like.

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Lastly, in interesting news, some small, hairy fungus beetles, Typhaea stercorea, have started popping up in my collection. So far I've only been finding like, one or two at a time in random roach bins, they're very fast and slippery little beetles, so I haven't been able to catch many to try and start a decent colony of them. The other week I was able to collect TWO from my Paranauphoeta formosana bin, so hopefully it's a pair or at least one of them's a mated female. 😅 

I'll keep collecting them as I find them though, I'm a fan of this family of beetles, and I once bred a significantly larger (and prettier) species of hairy fungus beetle years ago, though sadly they died out after F1 was achieved (they may have needed a diapause TBH).

I've got my two T.stercorea adults housed in a minimally ventilated 2 oz deli cup with about a cm of moist coco fiber at the bottom. On top of this I placed two pieces of dog food, which I've allowed to completely mold over, and it seems the beetles are in fact eating the mold (this species is cosmopolitan and most often associated with moldy stored food products, so obviously food molds seem like the best food source for this species in culture). Here's hoping this works to produce larvae, it my adults are a breedable pair that is. 😅

Here are some pictures of the tiny little things (they're only about 3 mms long):

Well, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Magnificent Emeralds, Pseudoglomeris magnifica!

I've FINALLY got my hands on a small breeding group of Pseudoglomeris magnifica "Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam", the OG hobby Magnificent Emerald Cockroach! 😁 So many different strains and localities in culture now, including various similar strains from Vietnam, and some different colored, diapause-needing Chinese strains as well. This species can vary a lot in coloration and also adult size depending on the locality, which is why knowing and keeping track of exactly what strain of magnifica you have is so important. The "Cuc Phuong" strain is perhaps the prettiest green strain of magnifica currently in the hobby, often throwing out individuals with a nice blue iridescent sheen over their base coloration of metallic green. This Vietnamese locality requires no diapause and also gets to a much larger size than most of the Chinese strains.

Thanks to my pal Alberto Marquez (AKA Junior) for trading me two large female nymphs, for a pre-sub/subadult male I already had that another buddy of mine sent me months prior. 😁 He also threw in an adult male of his own, just to be safe! Now I have all Pseuglomeris in the US hobby besides tarsalis (which I failed with mainly because I gave them the wrong type of hides). But hey, I have all the metallic ones in the US at least. 😂

I've got my trio of nymphs and adult male in a very well ventilated container with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate, keeping one third humid, the rest dry. They have vertically slanted cottonwood bark for hides, and I'm feeding them dog food, pollen, and fruits. I'm keeping them at around 75-85F°.

Here are some pictures of these precious living emeralds:

Pre-sub/Sub male

Mature male

Subadult female

So pretty! 😍 Can't wait to see adult females of these beauties in person, and hopefully breed them successfully! 🤞😁 

While I'm on the subject of Pseuglomeris BTW, both my P.aerea and P.magnifica "Kunming, Yunnan, China" are doing great while in their Winter diapause, and the latter have actually been steadily growing and molting even in diapause. Most are now subadults and one of the females may even be mature, so should definitely get some breeding action right out of the gate once I break their diapause in a little over a month. 😄

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Junior also threw in a group of Drymaplaneta semivittata nymphs for me, since my colony crashed due to pesticide exposure months ago. This is much appreciated, and very generous of Junior, hopefully I can get another colony established in no time! 🤞 😁

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉