First off, perhaps the most depressing IMO, both my Archiblatta hoeveni ooths failed to hatch and rotted... 😭 I believe these ooths were produced from F2 adults, and apparently that's been the generation that gives breeders the most trouble... Though I'd honestly thought it was just hyperbole, since failure past F2 without adding new bloodlines would instantly point to inbreeding, which is never really an issue with roaches (and still shouldn't be with this species IMO), so I'm not really sure what to make of it...
I kept both ooths consistently humid, warm, and well ventilated. Both ooths reached the 2 month mark just fine, but shortly afterwards their hatching seams burst open from one little spot (1.5 weeks apart from each other I believe), and that is basically a death sentence since all sorts of fungi and bacteria enter the seam and kill/consume all the eggs inside after that.
So yeah, not really sure what happened, but apparently it's not a good idea to start colonies of this species from only ooths, as even WC/F1 female Archiblattini apparently make a decent amount of dud ooths from what I've heard... 😟 Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to try with this beautiful species again one day...
Now for some sad springtail news... Sadly my Willowsia nigromaculata and Entomobrya multifasciata colonies have completely died out and been overwhelmed by my Willowsia sp. "Kota Kinabalu"...
My Isotoma viridis also got infested with Willowsia, but I'll be setting up new cultures of those to attempt to fix that, and in any case they seem to be fighting against the Willowsia better than some of my other springtails
Lastly my Tomocerus minor and Orchesella cincta cultures have all but completely crashed, and I'm not 100% sure why, seems like predatory mites are the main reason to blame though. I've also given those fresh new containers, so hopefully they'll take off again, but I remain pessimistic about their revival.
Onto some sad isopod news... Both my Porcellio expansus and P.bolivari cultures just completely failed to take off. I'm still not sure why that is, since I kept them all quite well ventilated, and I'm pretty sure their humidity levels were correct as well... Maybe kept them a bit too dry considering how low the air humidity is here, but again, I'm not sure. In any case, all the females of both species just up and died on me, (often while gravid). The weirdest thing is, they're the only two Spanish Porcellio giving me issues right now... All my others are doing fine and have bred. So yeah, bit confused as to what happened here with these two species...
Next up, my Schizillus sp. "Oak Hills". My adults keep producing eggs, and I think both are females... However said eggs have been consistently failing to hatch, and I'm afraid both females may have been young, and collected too early in the Spring, and are both virgins... 🙃 I can think of no other reason why the eggs would fail to hatch, I've tried keeping them dry, semi-humid, humid, hot, room temps, on pure sand, on sand mixed with clay, etc... Just won't hatch. Whereas I've had no issue getting my other, for sure fertile Cryptoglossini eggs to hatch. So these might be a dead end in terms of breeding.
Now, for a very bittersweet (but mostly bitter) Eucorydia linglong update... So, first off, let's go back to late April. Both of my Eucorydia linglong pairs had finally matured, however for some reason, one of the females died within a couple days of maturing. She never actually fully hardened up, so it would appear this was a random fluke, perhaps some genetic defect unrelated to husbandry, and she just kicked the bucket as a result.
But oh well, I still had one healthy female and two males, should be no problem right? WRONG. For the first month or so I basically kept them at room temps, because they come from temperate China, and I was afraid keeping them too warm would kill them. HOWEVER, as I'm learning now, unless we're talking about specifically montane environments in northern temperate China, Spring/Summer is hot as heck in much of temperate China. So while yes, giving these Eucorydia a diapause was a good idea and probably necessary, I was supposed to be keeping them pretty warm as soon as they were out of diapause. I did not do this though, and so as a result my adults spent most of their lives quite cool, and my female seemingly did not produce a SINGLE ooth that entire time. 🙃😭
I realized my mistake when my adults were looking a bit old, and I rehoused them and found absolutely no ooths in their substrate. 😰 So, afterwards I kept them quite warm, however the female was already old and past her reproductive prime, and I'm pretty sure she only laid one, maybe two ooths before dying of old age.
On the plus side, I did find hatchlings in their enclosure last week... So yay, babies. But also if my suspicions are correct, there's probably only 6-8 babies in there at most... Which is pretty sad considering a single female should produce at least a couple dozen offspring. 😢 So, I'll actually probably have to get some more from my friend who sent me my first two pairs, just to bulk up my current "colony" and ensure I can continue to breed them. Now that I've realized my mistake I'm confident I can do better with this species, but yeah I messed up pretty bad this first try, and this species won't truly be established in the US hobby outside of my collection for at least a year or more.
Lastly, unfortunately both the Temnoscheila cf. acuta and Ampedus rubricollis Kyle sent me appear to be either males or unmated females... No offspring have been produced by either and likely never will... Sucks since both are such pretty beetles, but alas, better luck next time.
Well, that does it for this post, hopefully some of you found this all at least a bit informative. Thanks for reading, stay safe, stay buggy, and I'll see everyone next time! 😉
