Summer Roach Updates!

Again, really behind on posts, here are some random updates that have happened over the Summer that I wanted to cover though.

First, and perhaps most importantly, my Eustegasta buprestoides had babies! 😁 They actually produced several healthy litters, and have done so over the course of the past several months. Some of the first nymphs born are already subadults, so my next generation should be maturing soon! Just wanted to update y'all on these jewels, hopefully I'll be able to make them available next year!

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Now this one isn't so much of an update, but I got a nice picture of some Compsodes schwarzi oothecae by accident while attempting to photograph some Venezillo pisum, and I just wanted to dump this photo somewhere, as I think the oothecae of this species are pretty unique in morphology, and this is the best picture I've ever taken/seen of them. 🙂

Weird little things lol.

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Next up, my Pseudoglomeris magnifica "North Vietnam" have done well over the Summer, though I have yet to really nail the conditions this species seems to like best I feel. Hopefully I can accomplish that this coming year, and maximize production and survival rates in my colonies. 

Anyways, here are some pictures of them that 8 wanted to dump here:

Such a beautiful species, one of the prettiest to enter culture ever IMO. 😍

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My Pseudoglomeris tarsalis have exploded this Summer, which is great news, I'm hoping the same will prove true for the other Pseudoglomeris spp. I've currently got in my collection. 

Here are some pictures of the tarsalis:

A very underrated species, hopefully they'll catch on in popularity as we get more Pseudoglomeris spp. in culture, I feel these are very much the "Cubaris" of the cockroach hobby.

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Lastly, in terms of random updates, my Aeluropoda insignis colony had a bit of a boom recently. They've also being throwing out some crazy large major males, one of which I couldn't help but snap some photos of. 

Here are said pics:

Such a beautiful and slept on hisser species, the pronotum morphology of major males especially reminds me of some sort of evil Disney villain design. 😄

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

Brandon's Ballin' Box!

A few months ago I got in a big old box of bugs from Brandon Maines at Magnificent Beasts, mostly stuff I've previously had and either failed with, and some stuff I still have but wanted booster groups of just to be safe. Namely these species:

Blattidae sp. "Philippines"

Cariblatta lutea "Brooksville"

Cristarmadillidium muricatum

Eublaberus marajoara

Eurycotis opaca "Jaruco"

Princisia vanwaerebeki "Black & White"

Pseudoglomeris tarsalis 

Troglodillo sp. "Green Spot"

Therea bernhardti

Therea regularis

Plus, both Brandon and Junior Marquez sent me the very last of their failing Pseudoglomeris aerea colonies. I had sent the last of mine to Brandon earlier this year to see if they'd do better for him, unfortunately they did not... and Junior's weren't much better off. So, all in all I've got one adult male, one subadult female and two presub females... I think the three big parts of my previous failure with this species were:

1. Too much ventilation in their enclosure considering how low my ambient air humidity is. This caused dehydration, but keeping the enclosure more humid caused their bark and too much of the substrate to become moist to the touch, which these loath. Ideally you want high air humidity and low surface moisture with this species, so limiting my ventilation a bit more in the future will be necessary to work with this species. 
2. Improper hide choices also likely stressed my colony out, I used too flat of bark hides, without enough nooks and crannies for nymphs to hide and feel safe in. This time I'm using cork bark for hides, which seems to be the best hide choice for Perisphaerinae in general.
3. Poor temperature control, especially in the Summer. I think I let my culture get too warm last Spring/early Summer, due to space constraints in my last place of living. Now that I've moved into a new house though, I should have no issues keeping them at the proper temps year round.

Taking all these issues into consideration, I'm hoping I can salvage this colony, and keep this species going in culture. 🤞 

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Now, onto the few species he sent me that I've actually never kept before! First off, we have Ergaula cf. silphoides "Hobby Stock". Formerly labeled as "Ergaula pilosa", as we covered in a previous post, this species is not true E.pilosa, and is most likely E.silphoides (with the previously rumored locality data for this stock of "Malaysia" likely being inaccurate). But I wanted to see in person to confirm this suspicion, especially since I've struggled to find photos that very clearly show the morphological features I'm looking for.

Anyways, I've got then set up in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch or two of coconut fiber substrate, which I'm keeping two thirds humid, one third dry. I'm feeding them dog food and leaf litter for the staple diet, and am keeping them at 75-85F°.

Here are some pics of the fuzzy nymphs:

Here's hoping for adults within the next several months. 🙂

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He also sent some Anthrenus sp. larvae from his former home in Osceola Mills, PA. Initially he thought they were Dermestes lardarius larvae, which I was quite excited to keep, but on arrival I was instantly able to tell they were not Dermestes larvae, but rather Anthrenus instead. No idea which species it is, but nevertheless, happy to now have two different strains (and hopefully two different species) of this genus in my collection now.

Here are some pictures:

Hopefully they'll mature soon and establish a colony with little difficulty. 😃

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And lastly, he sent some Porcellionides cf. virgatus "Miami, FL", which is in the same species complex of "Porcellionides" as the sp. "Big Pine Key" and "Everglades" strains. I think there's only two other strain of this Florida complex in culture that I don't yet have, so I'm getting closer to having them all. 😂 These "Miami" are actually prettier than I thought they were, definitely a strain that looks better in person than in photos.

As with the other two lines of this complex I keep, I have this Miami strain in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch or so of coconut fiber substrate, topped with bark hides and leaf litter. I'm keeping most of the enclosure humid, and at around 75-80F°. In addition to the leaf litter they are being offered dog food for their diet.

Here are some pictures of them:

Definitely a neat isopod with some variable coloration, hopefully they'll breed as well for me as the "BPK" and "Everglades" lines have!

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

Gold Dubias, Pink Roach Babies & Baby Pseudoglomeris!!!

Finally, I have adults popping up in my Blaptica dubia "Unnamed Gold Morph" colony from Kyle of Roachcrossing! 😁 (You REALLY need to decide on a name for these Kyle... 🙃).

The females are quite a bit darker than I was expecting, though I suppose I'd just forgotten that traditionally the females of "Gold" dubia lines are pretty dark in comparison to more yellow lines, like JohnFrost's "Amber Dubia" strain (which coincidentally have also just become publicly available). The males of Kyle's "Gold" strain are very pale though, as are the nymphs, and overall all life stages are very close in appearance to the EU "Gold" lines of dubia out there, without the accompanying health issues and poor breeding vigor those lines usually have.

Here are some pics of an adult pair:

Adult female

Adult male

Adult pair

Very pretty strain, really hope they'll breed well for me! As far as my first dubias go, glad I got to work with this strain! 😁

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I'm happy to report that my Gyna capucina have had babies! 😁 And I'm talking dozens of the things, seems like one of the females had a decent sized litter! Upon the suggestion of my buddy Alan Jeon, I've been keeping my adults separate from their nymph siblings, as it seems like larger nymphs might stress out the females of the larger Gyna spp. (at least in small enclosures). I also gave my adults a shallow but very chunky and well aerated substrate. I honestly haven't been keeping them very hot, only like 75-80F°, and still that's been enough to breed them. Very happy to have finally successfully bred these beauties, which are direct descendants of the old colony I received from an old friend of mine years ago. 😊

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Lastly, last night I found that one of my last two female Pseudoglomeris tarsalis had given birth to a full sized litter of 15-20 nymphs! 😁

This species has NOT been doing great for me, as I'd mentioned in a previous post, and even in their new setup with no males and less springtails, they just weren't doing well. So, I decided to pull a Hail Mary, and threw my remaining two females in my Pseudoglomeris aerea "Yunnan" setup (of course, after removing the one adult male aerea that was in there, since I don't wanna make hybrids).

The P.aerea have been doing phenomenally, so I thought that by throwing the tarsalis in there, they would benefit from the allee effect, since there's a lot of healthy aerea nymphs bustling around in there. I also though they may possibly prefer just the aerea setup itself, perhaps the specific humidity gradient and ventilation levels of that enclosure were more conducive to breeding Pseudoglomeris than the tarsalis's old setups (despite me attempting to keep them essentially the same).

Either way, it worked, and I managed to save my tarsalis. 😅 Hopefully the other female gives birth soon, then begins the process of me removing all the tarsalis from that setup before Fall when I throw the aerea into their diapause... and/or before any aerea start maturing, whichever comes first, can't be making hybrids after all... 😂

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! 😉