Jerusalem Cricket, Polyphaga saussurei & a Couple Centipede Updates

A couple days ago, the 13th to be exact, I put my male Jerusalem cricket, Tiny, in with another female, Sam. Now I had him in an enclosure with her for almost a week a little while back but saw no breeding activity, so just to make sure I put them both in my breeding enclosure to ensure that the male fertilized her. It was a success, and the male was able to leave a spermatophore for the female.

Here are some images of the mating:

Now, according to David Weissman, the leading expert on Stenopelmatidae, part of the spermatophore dries out and sticks to the female for a 3-4 days, serving as both a physical and olfactory barrier against other males that would try to mate with her. However, just 45 minutes after this mating, I checked on the female and saw no spermatophore. It seems that she most likely dislodged the remnants of it when she tried burrowing into the substrate. Luckily it seems that this should not have any impact on her fertility, as when I told David of this he said he suspected my female was definitely fertilized.

Hopefully I will be able to mate my male with my other females and try to get some eggs out of them!

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My Polyphaga saussurei have been doing pretty good, not much has changed with them since my last post about them, just wanted to share some more pictures I took of my adult today.

Can't wait for her to start laying some oothecae! :)

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My Rhysida sp. "Purple" has been doing pretty good, I have been feeding it fairly often, though not as often as I could be, and it still has not molted. I will be feeding it a little more frequently, as I feel it should have molted in my care by now. It seems to readily accept Parcoblatta americana nymphs and adult males, which I have plenty of.

Here are a few pictures of it:

I am also going to be power feeding my Scolopendra polymorpha, as it has been pretty active on the surface lately and seems relentlessly hungry. No matter how much I feed the sucker I have not noticed any weight gain so far, just today I fed it a large superworm pupa, then when it finished I fed it a superworm pre-pupa, which it eagerly attacked.

Here are some pics of it eating the pre-pupa:

Hopefully I'll start seeing some growth in my centipedes soon!

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)

Scolopendra polymorpha & Melanotus sp Updates

My Scolopendra polymorpha "Rio Grand" has been really active lately, and has been eating a lot. I fed him an adult Surinam roach the other day, which pounced on right away!

Here are some pictures I took of him while he was eating:

Surprisingly after eating the whole roach, he does not look any fatter, looks like I need to keep feeding him!

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The adult Melanotus sp. that I caught a little while back have all died, however they did reproduce and I am currently rearing some of their larva with some success! They either did not lay many eggs, or the some of the larva died because I only have about half a dozen of them it seems, but they are growing at a good pace.

I have them housed in a small container filled with rotten sawdust and rotten wood chunks, they really like tunneling through the chunks of wood. They are eating the substrate along with some cat food pieces, and have really grown in size these past few months.

Here are some pictures of a couple of the larvae:

Really hope that they all make it to adulthood so and that I can breed them for another generation, I'm also hoping the experts on Bugguide will be able to identify them down to species.

Anyways, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! :)

Jerusalem Cricket, Coelus ciliatus & Centipede Updates

Well, my largest Jersalem cricket female, Swirl, ate her mate, Jiminy. I found what was left of his body on top of the substrate in their her enclosure. She had been hunkered down in her burrow for most of the week I left them in with each other, and when she surfaced and found the male she probably freaked out and killed him. I'm hoping he got to mate before she did so, but chances are she may have killed him before he had the chance.

I separated Tiny and Sam after finding Jiminy dead, as Tiny is my last male. Hopefully Tiny mated with Sam, the few times I saw them interact they seemed scared by each other, but hopefully they mated when I was not looking. He and Sam were removed from their cages and put in a larger enclosure for mating, and thus had not established territories, but I put Jiminy in Swirl's enclosure that she had already been in for a while. I think had I removed Swirl and put her in unfamiliar territory along with Jiminy, she may not have killed him. Instead, I put Jiminy in her territory, and I think as soon as she saw him she probably freaked out and attacked him.

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My Scolopendra polymorpha "Rio Grand", Tirek, has finally surfaced after a long fast, he has been in a burrow at the bottom of his cage for several weeks now. I fed him a Parcoblatta americana nymph, and an adult female Parcoblatta lata that was dying. He's fattened up a bit, but still looks a little skinny. I don't think he even molted the whole time he was in hiding. Hopefully he will stay active and eat a bit more, would love for him to start growing.

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped of him yesterday:

Centipedes are such amazing creatures, and this species is a very pretty one! Can't wait until he reaches full size, he should get pretty big when full grown!

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A few weeks ago I separated a couple of Coelus ciliatus larva for pupation, I put them in small deli cups filled with almost an inch of a moist, compressed sand and coconut fiber mixture. I waited for them to build pupal cells at the bottom of the enclosure, like most darkling beetle larva do, but they never did. I wondered if the larvae had died or were still digging around in search of a suitable pupation spot.

I had almost given up on them, so yesterday I put about ten more larva in containers for pupation, hoping they'd have better luck. However, today while inspecting my collection, I noticed that two freshly eclosed beetles were on the surface of the of the substrate in the both the deli cups!
I have moved them to a container full of dry sand, with some dead leaves and a piece of cat food in the cage for food and shelter. I'll be keeping them in there for a week or so, until their exoskeletons have hardened.

Here are some pictures of them:

I am very happy that I've reared these to adulthood, however I am a little upset that I was not able to get any pictures of the pupae. I'll need to be more diligent with the other larvae I attempt to pupate, and dig them up after a while to find a pupa. Once I do I will have captured every important part of this species' life cycle on camera!

Well, that's gonna be it for this post, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! :)

Myriapod Madness!!!

I've recently gone on a bit of a myriapod kick, so I thought I'd post about some of the stuff I've caught over the past couple weeks.

First off, let's start with my Polydesmus sp. This small Polydesmid has been introduced into North America from Europe, along with several other invertebrates, including some other myriapods. They are commonly found in backyards across America, and after finding a couple in my backyard I have decided to keep them.

I currently have two, but I will try to catch more this week. I am keeping them in a cage filled with a substrate of coconut fiber and long fibered sphagnum moss, and there is a layer of dead leaves on top. They shouldn't need rotten wood, seeing as there is none to be found in my backyard and they are pretty abundant there. I feed them the dead leaves, as well as dog food occasionally.

Here are some pictures of them:

Hopefully I can find more and get them breeding!

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I've also found some small Julid millipedes in my backyard, I believe these are another European species that has been introduced to America, Brachyiulus sp. I will be posting some pics on Bugguide.net, hopefully they will be able to tell what species it is.

I caught six of them a couple of days ago in my backyard, and have put them in a small cage full of coconut fiber and dead leaves. There are a few isopods in that cage, they should co-exist together just fine, I find them together in the wild all the time. I am feeding them the dead leaves as well as some dog food.

Here are some pictures of them:

The cage

With six I should be able to breed them, though I may catch a few more, just to be safe.

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Now let's move on to the centipedes! I found a brown stone centipede, Lithobius forficatus the other day under a piece of wood. I have housed it in a deli cup full of coconut fiber and dead leaves, and have offered it dog food and a live roach nymph. It ate neither, but once I killed the roach nymph it ate it.

Here are some pictures of it:

The cage

Hopefully I can catch more, so that I can try to breed them!

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I also caught a small Lithobiomorph, whether it is a immature L.forficatus or something else, I don't know yet. It is in a small deli cup filled with coconut fiber and dead leaves, and has been eating small pre-killed mealworms. Hopefully I can raise it to maturity, it has already molted once in my care!

Here are some pics:

The cage

Hopefully it continues to do well in my care!

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Here's a little update on my Scolopendra polymorpha "Rio Grand". It has been doing well, it has made itself a burrow that it refuses to come out of, even at night. This may be a sign of molting, so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled that's for sure.

Anyway, here is a picture of the cage:

Since we are on the subject of myriapods, if you guys didn't know, Mike's House of A Thousand Legs has opened up, and it is quite the site! There is a video about the site opening up here, and there is a giveaway going on as well! It is the only web store devoted to myriapods, with a focus on centipedes in particular. I suggest you guys check it out, and get yourself a centipede or two! ;)

Well guys I hoped you enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)