New Phortioeca, Polyphaga obscura Update & More!

Introducing a brand new species for culture, Phortioeca phoraspoides "Limon, Costa Rica"! These are smaller than the Ecuadorian P.peruana in culture (yes, we have a species ID for those now finally), but are more colorful and have more unique morphology IMO. I'm so happy to have these in my collection, I received them as small nymphs, and they are now all adults. So fingers crossed they breed well for me!

I have them in a moderately ventilated 5 gallon bin with an inch or so of coco fiber topped in coco coir chunks as the substrate, and lots of hardwood and cork bark for hides. I keep one third of the substrate moist, the rest dry. I am feeding them dog food and fruits, and have them at around 75-80F.

Here are pictures of the adults, from my new phone and my normal camera:

Phone pictures

Camera pics

Truly stunning roaches, I am so hyped to have them, and eagerly look forward towards them breeding!
I also acquired some Capucina patula from this same locality (in fact the two species came mixed together as nymphs and I had to separate them). Those are finally starting to mature so I will hopefully soon have two established locality stocks of that species in my collection.

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Next up, my Polyphaga obscura have matured! And they have wasted no time in laying oothecae! They are in fact a bit smaller than P.saussurei, as I expected for this species. Bigger than P.aegyptiaca for sure though, so a nice in between species in terms of size.

Some pretty decent phone pics of my adults:

Here's hoping their ooths are easy enough to incubate, and that I can then get them spread around and established in the hobby here!

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My Gromphadorhina sp. "Unidentified" are doing great lately, which I attribute to me keeping them a bit more drier and switching over to eggcrates as their new hides. Recently they have thrown out some fairly large males (no true majors yet though), which I got a few decent pics of on my new phone.

The new phone that I keep mentioning is a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which I got specifically for taking better pictures and videos of my bugs on the go. I have been pumping out IG/FB reels lately, so for anyone interested in that short form content, feel free to check out my socials. 😊 And if not, no worries, I know that kind of content is not for everyone!

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I recently acquired Leptotrichus cf. panzerii "Guadeloupe" from Spencer Thornton, and I gotta say I am in love with these little guys. They get about a cm long, and are almost circular in shape. They are so rotund and stout in morphology, truly an adorable unit of an isopod! They're basically on the exact opposite side of the spectrum of body shapes as Hemilepistus. 😂

Anyways, I got them set up in a moderately ventilated enclosures filled with an inch of old Opisthoplatia substrate (so coco fiber, sphagnum moss, leaf litter and a lot of roach frass), which they have since mostly converted to isopod frass. I am keeping them on a 70/30 humidity gradient, erring on the moist side. I feed them dog food and dead invertebrates, and am keeping them at around 80F.

Here are some photos of these chonkers:

Yet another underrated isopod species that I think more people should keep!

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Lastly, we have yet another isopod mix-up... I traded for these under the name "Cubaris sp. Purple Giant", a species I have been actively looking for for years. However after keeping them for a while I've noticed they are suspiciously fast growing and breeding, easy to care for, and breed at a much smaller size than I would expect for that species. They are also not quite as purple looking and the morphology seemed off... SO I took some pictures and asked a couple of my isopod taxonomist friends... and yeah no apparently they are just mislabeled Nesodillo arcangelii "Purple Ghost". 😭 Getting sick and tired of the rampant mislabeling of isopods in this hobby, my god...

Anyways, got these in a well ventilated gallon shoebox filled with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with moss, leaf litter and bark. I'm keeping them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, at around 75F, and am feeding them dog food and fish food as their supplemental diet. Honestly though now that I know they are not Purple Giants I may need to lower ventilation for them and increase the moisture... that is if I decide to keep them.

Here are pictures of them:

So yeah... I am still on the lookout for trading for REAL sp. "Purple Giant"... And I am going to have to maintain a high level of diligence when getting new isopod stocks and ensuring they are what they are labeled as... Thankfully I checked these before selling any of them, unlike with those mislabeled sp. "Salmon Martinique"... 

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

Princisia Locality Cross, Weird Darklings, Beetle Mimic Taxonomy & More!

So, unfortunately, no one in the US was successful at breeding Princisia vanwaerebeki "Androhamana"... none of our females would give birth, no matter the conditions provided. At least 4 different people had them here at one point, and all failed to get any offspring from their females.

However, Kyle at Roachcrossing was successful in crossing a male P.vanwaerebeki "Androhamana" to a female P.vanwaerebeki "Big/Black"... I eventually got some of the progeny of that cross, and those of use working with them are all selecting for the most "Androhamana" looking adults to hopefully isolate a line that's as close to that locality stock as possible, at least until we can get real ones again...

Here are some pictures of one of the more vibrant, but typical looking males:

Now that one's a looker for sure, buuuuuut it's not quite what I'm looking for, I want more defined orange striping that goes across the entire abdomen. 

THIS is a lot closer to what I'm looking for:

And so this is one of the few males I have left in my main colony. Most of the females in there look pretty faithful to those of the Androhamana line, though I had to cull some more "Big/Black" looking ones for sure. Hopefully with enough time and selective breeding, we can get a line that looks a lot more like true Androhamana, and breeds true for said coloration. 🤞 

We also need a better working strain name than "Androhamana x Big/Black", so I hope Kyle figures that out soon... 😆 

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A few months back, Alan Jeon sent me some Philolithus cf. morbillosus from Animas, NM. Now, Asidini in general are reportedly a pain to rear, not only are adults often quite picky about their oviposition medium, but the larvae tend to be cannibalistic and have a lot of the same hurdles in rearing that Cryptoglossini have. However, unlike Cryptoglossini, Asidini adults tend to be very seasonal, and only live a few months max. So not a great tribe for captive rearing, however I figured I may as well give it the ol' college try. 😅

I put my adults in a well ventilated shoebox, filled with fine sand and clay mixture (much more sand than clay), and kept a third of the enclosure moist, the rest dry. I fed them dog food and kept them at around 75-85F°. The adults lived for a couple months and did actually lay eggs, which were quite large and deposited singly in both the moist and dry areas (though they seemed to prefer substrate that was compacted for laying). 

The eggs took a few weeks to hatch, and so far the larvae seem quite slow growing, but not very cannibalistic (yet). They spend most of their time in the dryest sand, and more rarely on the border between the dry and moist area.

Here are some pictures of a dead adult (because I didn't get around to getting photos of them before they kicked it) and a larvae:

Adult

Larva

I guess we'll see just how easy these really are to rear, I'll be surprised if I get any to maturity with what I've heard about them, but I guess we'll see!

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My Ergaula silphoides "Old Hobby Stock" (ex. pilosa) have been popping off, and I finally got around to getting some photos of an adult pair, which I'll show off here.

Before that though, I feel like I never clarified the taxonomy situation on these past this post, which is now a little outdated IMO. So I guess I'll give a quick rundown on why I think they are E.silphoides:

• For one, size, morphology, and patterning fits that species the best IMO, we have seen confirmed silphoides out of Thailand and they look identical to this old hobby stock. 
• Secondly, I find the supposed locality for this old hobby stock, "Borneo", to be a bit dubious. There is nothing quite like these recorded from Borneo, the only other described species of Ergaula found there (besides E.pilosa, which we have established these are NOT), is E.funebris, which I had my doubts about being the identity for this stock, as I pointed out in my previous post addressing this subject. I think it's more likely that a mistake was made and that these actually came out of Thailand (which is certainly possible since we had several species enter culture from Thailand around that time, and importers/exporters mess up the labeling of their stocks and where they came from all the time).
• If we are to assume they came from Thailand (or at least that the supposed locality of "Borneo" is incorrect), then they should definitely be silphoides . That and matching them in every way in terms of morphology, coloration, and size, makes the identity pretty clear IMO.
• For a MUCH better rundown that goes into more detail, please see my friend Martin's blog post on the subject here.

Anyways, here are those pictures:

A big and very prolific, hardy species of Corydiid. IMO E.capucina are prettier, but these were definitely a neat addition to the hobby.

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My Euthlastoblatta sp. "Miramar Beach, FL" have been doing quite well, and I already have F1 adults! Expecting F2 to start hatching out within the next few months, and then maybe I can finally make the fabled "Southern Belle Roach" available. 

Here are pics of a large nymph:

Not the best photos, but their glossy texture and refusal to sit still doesn't make it easy... 😅 I'm so glad these are doing well for me, hopefully we can keep them established in the hobby going forward!

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Lastly, quite a while ago I got some Cubaris sp. "Panda King - Red" from Tennyson Kingsley, which at the time were throwing out some more random morphs. I was able to get the Reds breeding true after minimal isolation, however they do still throw out solid orange, so called "Citrus" morph individuals (which after conversation with other isopod breeders, seems to be standard for all "Red" colonies). 

I am working on isolating a colony of the Citrus morph as well, because why not? 

I have my Red Pandas in a gallon shoebox with moderate ventilation, and an inch or so of coco fiber substrate, topped with leaf litter and bark. I am feeding them dog food as their supplemental diet, am keeping the enclosure moist, and at around 75F.

Here are some photos of them:

A striking morph for sure! 😄

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