More Princisia Male Pictures

Some back to back posting action because I wanna get these photos posted and the backlog of new acquisition posts is so long... 😂 

So far so OK with the Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big", the three female nymphs still have yet to mature and haven't molted in quite a while, and go back and forth between looking like they're on the verge of molting and then just losing a lot of weight... I wonder if they need a bigger enclosure to molt, IDK? The one adult female looks good, nice and plump, hopefully she's gravid. 

The adult male is doing well too, but I'm still not super happy with it's coloration and a little doubtful of this strain's purity as a result. 

Here are some more pictures I took of him recently, tried to show off his thin, but definitely present yellow abdominal margins:

Need to wait until the next generation to determine purity, but man are they taking their time to breed, and my other three female nymphs are taking FOREVER to mature... 

Anyways, just thought I'd post an update on these, hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you in the next post! 😉

The Golden Pseudoglomeris!!!

The latest in a long line of new additions to the Invertebrate Dude collection, the beautiful Pseudoglomeris cf. magnifica "Gold - China"!!! 😁 This particular culture has an interesting history, they were received by a US customer of the Chinese vendor MyHomeNature by accident, MHN made a mistake and sent these instead of the plants the customer had ordered... She then passed them on to one of our mutual friends, Leo Blattodea, as they weren't doing so well for her. Unfortunately, they were very up and down for Leo, and so he sent the remainder to me, in the hopes I can establish a colony successfully and then send them both back some nymphs. Here's hoping I won't let them down, I have researched this species' care extensively, so I'm confident I can succeed! 🙂

The first time this species entered the US hobby was when Brandon Maines got them back in 2018, (not from MyHomeNature, though Brandon's and mine were very likely caught by the same collector, from the same locale), and Brandon, already having regular P.magnifica (the green Vietnam stock), noticed there were some differences between these "Golds" and them... 

The most obvious but superficial difference between them is coloration, but that's not so important. What is important is the fact that the Chinese "Golds" are consistently quite smaller than the Vietnam greens when mature, the behavior between the two is a bit different, the "Gold" males don't seem to live as long as the green males do, and as Brandon has just learned, it seems the "Golds" like higher humidity than the green Vietnam stock.

To complicate matters, the green Vietnam stocks can sometimes throw out similarly golden colored individuals, though the larger adult size and everything else is the same as their green siblings, and no one's ever isolated said individuals from the Vietnam stock and tried selectively breeding for that coloration as far as I'm aware. Right now, any strains labeled as "Gold" in the hobby come from China, not Vietnam.

It's possible these Chinese "Golds"may be an undescribed subspecies of P.magnifica, for now it seems that calling them Pseudoglomeris cf. magnifica, not just P.magnifica straight out, is for the best, until we get a taxonomist to take a look at them at least. 

I've got several adult females and about 7 small CB nymphs. Unfortunately, all the adults are WC, and only some of them were adults and mated when collected, the rest matured in captivity, isolated from adult males, and thus won't produce babies for me... And it's possible the mated females may be too old by now to give birth again, so it'll be quite hit or miss, my main hope is that the small CB nymphs will NOT be a unisex group, and I can then breed those when they mature in a year or so. 🤞 

I have them all set up in a very well ventilated container with a substrate of coconut fiber, with vertically slanted bark for hides. I'm keeping two thirds of the enclosure humid, and will keep them at 75-85F°. I'm feeding them chick feed, artificial pollen, and fruits. 

Here are some pictures of adult females:

I'll be honest, these aren't quite as stunning as the green magnifica IMO, and kinda look brownish in dim lighting... BUT, under bright light they are really quite attractive, and look like living chunks of metal, which is very very cool! 😁 I'm looking forward to hopefully breeding these beauties and getting some back into the hands of their previous owners, and helping to get them established in US Blatticulture overall! 

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

Hello Hyporhicnoda!!!

Magnificent Beasts Package Series Pt. 2/6

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There are some roaches that stay in US culture for a while, maybe a few years or so, but still remain very scarce and often die out. The Blaberid genus Hyporhicnoda has been one such type of roach, there was one species, Hyporhicnoda litomorpha "Panama", that was around for a couple years, they were sent to a few different US Blatticulturists, but those are sadly on the brink of hobby extinction. 😞

There are two other Hyporhicnoda strains being bred sporadically by European hobbyists, Hyporhicnoda sp. "reflexa" and Hyporhicnoda sp. "reflexa - Venezuela", both are very similar to each other, and have yet to be formerly identified beyond genus, (they're certainly not actual H.reflexa, as I've mentioned in a previous post). Brandon Maines has actually been working with these two strains for a year or so now, but unfortunately they've not been doing so hot for him, they are known to be rather finicky for whatever reason. He only had a few females of both strains left, and due to their steady decline and his overall lack of interest in working with them any further, he decided to send them to me to see if they'd do any better in my care. I don't know that they will, but I'll give it my all and see what happens! 🤞 Thankfully he says all the adult females should have been exposed to males and thus mated at one point, so it's just a matter of getting them to give birth now! 

These two Hyporhicnoda strains are very slow growing, slow breeding roaches, and they can be tricky to breed long term, with colonies often seeming to do well at first, before slowly petering out. Adult males are fully winged, with females being wingless. Hopefully I can get mine established, and get them into the hands of more US Blatticulturists!

I've got three (or four, I already forget) adult females of the Hyporhicnoda sp. "reflexa" strain, and two adult females and one subadult female of the Hyporhicnoda sp. "reflexa - Venezuela" strain. One of the adult "Venezuela" females looks a bit worse for wear, so there's really only one healthy looking, hopefully gravid female of that species. The sp. "relfexa" with no locality info all look pretty good, one of the females has lost a tarsus, but that's it. 

I've got my two Hyporhicnoda species set up in moderately ventilated containers with a few inches of compressed, moist coconut fiber, with some rotten wood chunks and bark pieces buried as well, and leaf litter on top. These roaches burrow a lot, but according to Nicolas Rousseaux of the Cafarnarium, vertical bark hides are appreciated by adults, particularly adult females, which may climb up them and emit breeding pheromones when ready to mate. As such, I've offered them some vertically slanted bark hides for this purpose. I'm keeping them on a humidity gradient, half the enclosure humid, half dry, with temps around 75-80F°. I'll be feeding them chick feed, artificial pollen, and fruits, along with the rotten wood and leaf litter in their enclosure. 

Here are some pictures of the adult females, starting with the Hyporhicnoda sp. "reflexa" (no locality):

And now the Hyporhicnoda sp. "reflexa - Venezuela":

They're rather plain looking at first glance, but I think they have a very neat, primitive look about them. I'll keep you all updated on how they do, there's a good chance they'll just crash completely with how few are left, but I'll be keeping my fingers heavily crossed! 😅

Anyway, that's going to be it for this post, but never fear, more roachy content is on the way, we've only just scratched the surface of this package! 😁 Thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😄

New Hissers in the US Hobby?!?

Ty Schaben Order Pt. 3/8

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Getting a bit click-baity with these titles aren't we? 😄 The title does not lie though, thanks to this latest package of mine and Ty's, I've just obtained a starter colony of a strain of hisser that's only been bred overseas until now, which may or may not be an entirely different species than any in culture in the USA... They're currently being traded under the name "Gromphadorhina sp.", no locality data or catchy strain name yet, so I'll just be refering to them as G.sp. "Unidentified" for now.

This strain has only been in culture for around 8 years now, which may seem like a while, but that's fairly recent for a new hisser introduction, and they've not spread around in the hobby much since their initial introduction to the hobby. Unfortunately we have absolutely no locality data for this strain, like most of the hissers in culture. It's one of the largest hissers in the hobby, with major males reaching up to 85 mms, and they're supposedly more bulky than oblongonata males. They have very interesting coloration, you can see images of them in my "Pure Hobby Hisser Key", along with more information on their defining features.

When asked, George Beccaloni, a taxonomist who specializes in the Gromphadorhini, noted that he's seen this form of hisser in the wild before, and while he can't ID them properly as of yet, (they need more thorough examination), he thinks they're the closest to G.portentosa, and may be a local form or even new subspecies of portentosa.

Unfortunately, as with any other Gromphadorhina species in culture, the risk of getting hybrids is quite high, and the dealer who sells these in Europe has a few hybrid hisser colonies... However, despite that, he has been selling them for years, and most customers who have bought off him have had the individuals come out with rather consistent coloration and morphology, and thus they are likely still pure bred. Plus, most people breeding them report that they are slow breeding and quite similar to pure bred Princisia in ease of culturing, which also leads me to believe they're pure, as hybrids are usually very virile.

So, assuming these are pure bred, we may have a new species in the US hobby now, or at the very least, a new strain or subspecies of a species we already have in culture! 😅 A distinct new hisser type for the hobby any way you slice it, so long as they're pure. 

I've got 14-15 small nymphs, and I've got them set up in a well ventilated 2 gallon bin with a thin layer of coconut fiber for the substrate, and hardwood bark for hides. I'll be feeding them unmedicated chick feed, fruits, and the occasional bit of artificial pollen. I'm keeping most of the enclosure dry, with a corner or two kept moist, and will be keeping them at around 75-85F°.

Anyways, here are some pictures of my new hissers! 😁

They look kinda drab right now, but as adults they are gonna look really awesome, hopefully I can get a breeding colony established, confirm they are pure, and spread them around in the hobby! 😁

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

Ceuthophilus gracilipes Attempt #2!

Magnificent Beasts Package Series Pt. 1/6

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I've just received a box from a great friend of mine, Brandon Maines of Magnificent Beasts, who's really helped fill in the void left by a couple large cockroach vendors here in the US that either went out of business completely or stopped being consistent in the hobby a couple years back. I actually sold him the bulk of my collection when I left the hobby temporarily back in early 2018, and we've been good friends ever since. 😁

Anyways, he generously sent me this package filled with several species that I have been wanting to get, and I'll be dedicating posts to each of the species I've gotten, maybe combining a couple here and there. Most of what I got were roaches, but in this post I'll be discussing Ceuthophilus gracilipes gracilipes! 

That's right, Brandon also got this giant US native camel cricket species from Alan Jeon earlier this year, but it was cooler where Brandon lives, and thus his adults actually made it to him alive and well! They bred readily for him, and now he's sent me a group of 10 nymphs to work with myself, all of which arrived safe and sound! 😄 

I've got them all set up in the same tall, moderately ventilated enclosure I had dedicated to my lone, short lived adult female, with vertical bark pieces and cardboard rolls for hides. The substrate is coconut fiber, with bark chips and leaf litter strewn all over. I'm keeping them humid and cool, around 68-72F°, and will be feeding them chick feed, fruits, and maybe the occasional pre-killed mealworms. 

Here are some pictures of them:

Such an interesting species, glad to have a nice starter colony now, fingers crossed they breed well for me! 😁

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Also, quick sidenote, since I'm already talking about camel crickets, just wanted to say that my Ceuthophilus agassizii culture is doing great, lots of babies, and some of the first CB nymphs are now approaching adulthood! Been using excess males as feeders for my rose hair tarantula, as she's picky and only likes crickets or cricket-like roaches, flat roaches and beetle larvae are of little interest to her. 😄

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, but there are a lot more species to post about from this package, looking forward to showing you all the new roaches I got! 😃 Thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉