Random Updates & New Bugs

My Yuukianura aphoruroides are doing swimmingly, despite the culture being contaminated with predatory mites and Poduromorpha sp. "Tiny Blue". The predatory mites seem not to be interested in the Yuukianaria, at least not enough to make a dent in their population. And the Poduromorpha also seem not to bother the Yuukianura, instead eating the more rotten foods that the Yuukianura already tend to ignore. So, the culture is thriving, and I've already set up another cup as a backup colony. 😃

Here are a couple crappy pics of a group swarming some food, along with lots of the sp. "Tiny Blue":

Such cute and vibrantly colored springtails, I'd like to get the Thailand Reds as well one day soon.

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The Liposcelis sp. "TDE" I've isolated are breeding well, seems a very easy species to culture.

Finally got some pictures of them... though you can barely see the dang things. These are the best quality photos I could get of them, they're so fast and so tiny:

Definitely some neat little inverts, with good cleaner crew potential for drier setups.

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Now for some rapidfire bad news... Unfortunately I killed all my Goliathus goliatus, they all made pupal cells, and one even made it to adulthood, but I kept them just a tad too humid during this stage, and that resulted in all of them dying as prepupal larvae, pupae, and even killed my one teneral adult. 😭  Apparently they don't tolerate excess humidity well at all, but I found it difficult to get their substrate to a properly compactable level without keeping it as humid as I did, semi-humid is a very difficult humidity level for me to maintain personally here in the high desert environment I live in. So, that's quite a bummer. I did snap some pics of my teneral adult through the hole I poked it's pupal cell, before it passed away, which I'll share here: 

Now for news that's perhaps even more frustrating, I accidentally killed my Titanophilus sp. "Colombia" by smashing part of her under the one piece of bark in her enclosure. 😟 This is particularly upsetting, since besides myself, literally only one other person keeps this species, AND she was doing fantastic for me up until this point (granted, she definitely wasn't mated, so I still needed to get a male from my buddy who's still got a small culture going before I had any hope of breeding this species). I'm quite angry at myself about this blunder, and in the future, should I ever acquire this species again, I will never use bark as a hide for them.

Unfortunately I've lost my cultures of Plectoptera poeyi, Margattea cf. bisignata, and Chorisoneura parishi. Thankfully, Kyle at Roachcrossing has a healthy colony of the former two, and should be able to send some back to me later this Fall. However, I don't know of anyone who has a good culture of the Chorisoneura... so those may be lost from culture now. 😞 

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I just did a trade with my friend Junkai Wang, and now finally have TRUE Hemiblabera tenebricosa "Monroe County, FL". 😃 In case any of you aren't up to speed, the old hobby "tenebricosa" stock isn't actually tenebricosa, but is more likely H.roseni. The difference between those and these true H.tenebricosa are pretty obvious, and are outlined in my post about the issue here.

Care for these is pretty simple, I've got mine in a moderately ventilated setup with a couple inches of coco coir substrate topped with leaf litter, which I'm keeping humid.

Here are some pictures of the nymphs:

They're pretty colorful for Hemiblabera nymphs, really looking forward to seeing some adults!

I also got some Chalcolepidius smaragdinus from Kai, which were actually the main point of the trade. However, while he did mention they were damaged from being housed communally (this genus is quite territorial and adults will bite each other's legs off if kept communally, or at least particularly crowded), I was not prepared for just how bad they messed each other up. Simply moving from one end of the enclosure to another is a struggle for the 6 adults he sent me (1 male, 5 females), and most of their legs have been reduced to little stumps.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to get any eggs out of them whatsoever in their current state, it's a challenge even with perfectly mobile adults, as they seem rather picky about their oviposition spots. However, I just found two eggs in one of their setups the other day. Two eggs out of 5 females is pretty abysmal, but it's much better than nothing, which is honestly what I expected. So if I can get a total of 8-10 eggs somehow, then I'd honestly be stoked, as that would give me a breedable group to work with, and then i can try and do better with the next generation of CB adults. 🤞 

Even as damaged as their limbs are, they're still quite photogenic, so here are some pictures of the adults:

Such a beautiful species, would be amazing to get some larvae from them, so I've got my fingers crossed! 🤞

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Also, big thanks to Ty from Ty Dye Exotics, he just sent me some Bantua robusta and Arenivaga sp. "Mt Ord", both of which I needed to restart my cultures of. 

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

Interesting New Isopods & a Purple Soil Centipede

Magnificent Beasts 2022 Package Series Pt. 2/3

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For this post, we got three non-roach inverts from Brandon's package to cover! 😁

Let's start off with one of the isopod species he sent, Armadillidium maculatum "Yellow". This is a color forms of A.maculatum, the "Zebra Roly-Poly", where instead of white stripes/spots on their backs, they've got yellow ones instead. An odd mutation for sure, but a really cool one! 😄

I've bred this species in the past, and care is pretty standard for Armadillidium. I've got my dozen or so set up in a moderately ventilated container with an inch or so of coconut fiber as the substrate, topped with leaf litter and bark hides. I'm keeping them semi-humid, and at room temps for now. I'll be offering dog food occasionally as their supplemental diet.

Here are some pics of them:

Definitely a pretty morph, and one I hope does well for me! 😁

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Next up, he sent me 5 Cubaris sp. "Amber". These are very pretty isopods, I was skeptical of the pictures I've seen, but as usual these things are much prettier in person. 😍 The three largest are males, so I'm hoping at least one of the two smaller ones I haven't sexed yet are females.

I've got them set up in a well ventilated deli cup, with half an inch of used Macropanesthia substrate (so old coco fiber, bits of leaf litter and roach frass), and more leaf litter, spahgnum moss and bark hides piled on top. I'm keeping them humid, and at room temps. I'll be feeding them dog food as their supplemental diet.

Here are some pictures of one of the larger ones:

Such cuties, I really hope they'll breed for me! 😁🤞

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Now, I saved the best for last. Brandon's been breeding these for a few years now, and while his colony growth has been exceedingly slow, their numbers are indeed growing... Introducing, the Giant Purple Soil Centipede, Titanophilus sp. "North Colombia"! 😁

Now, most readers here are probably familiar with soil centipedes, Geophilomorpha, as being very thin, wiry, small creatures only a few inches long at most. Most common species/genera are orange, yellow or red, and can be found in a variety of habitats ranging from forest leaf litter to under rocks in dry scrubland. They're usually exceedingly fragile, and it's not uncommon to tear them in half when attempting to collect them.

The tropical Titanophilus spp. break those norms, with some species reaching 10 inches or more in length, and range in coloration from black to purple. They're usually pretty chunky for soil centipedes as well, and while young ones can still be fragile, larger individuals can be handled gently with little danger of harming them. Despite their collosal size for a soil centipede, they still can't really pierce human skin, and don't even try biting when disturbed. Their venom is probably rather weak anyways, and in captivity at least they seem to mostly be scavengers.

They are communal and can be bred and reared together, so long as there is adequate space, deep enough substrate, and enough food to keep them happy. This makes them one of the easier to breed centipede genera, and it only takes them around a year, two years tops after hatching to reach sexual maturity, depending on the temperature and frequency of feeding. They spend most of their time underground but will come to the surface at night to feed, and it seems the best thing to offer them is prekilled, cut open invertebrates. They can't pierce the exoskeletons of most common feeder inverts, and so the prey must be cut open or smashed, with the guts exposed. When the centipedes find the prey they'll hollow it out, leaving the empty exoskeleton behind.

This particular Colombian species is pretty colorful, immatures are brown with translucent purple sides, undersides and appendages, but larger individuals turn purple all over, with their sides changing to brown apparently. Quite the pretty species, though their eyeless, chonky, smooth conical heads have caused me and Brandon to give them the silly moniker "Purple Peckerpedes™" as a little inside joke... 😂 Doubt that'll catch on as the official marketing name for these, but I mean... Look at them. 🙃🤣

These seem to max out at around 6-8 inches, though it's possible some massive specimens might get a bit longer than that with very diligent care and feeding.

Now, unfortunately when digging through his colony to find some to send to me, Brandon couldn't find all that many (mostly because they're fantastic hiders), so he only sent me one. However we're pretty confident it's female based on how chonky it is, and Brandon says this is about sexual maturity size, so she may be mated already, we'll see. 🤞😁 Of course, the next day after shipping my box out, he found several individuals roaming around his colony, including a young male... 🙃😂 So worst case scenario I should be able to get a male from him at a later date if need be, and his colony thankfully does seem stable ATM. 😄

I've got my gal, who I've named Mukade Chōrō (fellow weebs will know why) housed in a moderately ventilated container with a couple inches of compressed coconut fiber as the substrate, which I'm keeping humid. I'm offering prekilled, cut open inverts as food, and am keeping her at around 75-78F°. So far she's doing great and ate an entire half of an Eleodes hispilabris larvae the other day. 😊

Now, here are some pictures of my precious Mukade:

Can't wait until the purple coloration creeps to her back! 💜 Now, fingers super crossed she's mated and gravid, she may only be 3.5 inches or so in length, but she could in fact be sexually mature! 😁🤞 

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! 😉