I have mine in a large, moderately ventilated bin with a few inches of coco fiber substrate topped in coco coir chunks, leaf litter and bark hides (my Archimandrita cf. tesselata "Cerro Chucanti, Panama" enclosure). I'm keeping them humid, at around 75-80F°, and am feeding them dog food as a supplemental diet (I guess apple slices too since that's what I give the Archimandrita, though isopods don't tend to eat much fruit).
They've been breeding fairly consistently in the setup, and I'll probably leave them in there until the Archimandrita start breeding, at which point I'll probably set up a proper culture for the Cubaris specifically (as they'll certainly get overrun by the Archimandrita).
Last year, my buddy Brandon Maines gave me the last of his Lucihormetica verrucosa "Old Hobby Stock", as he was cutting down his invert collection and didn't want these anymore. This is the standard stock cultured here in the US, of unknown origin (and possibly a locality cross). They look pretty different from the "Venezeula" stock I have, a bit more colorful with less black patterning on average.
I have them set up in a moderately ventilated container with several inches of coco fiber substrate, which I'm keeping humid. They're kept at around 75F°, and I'm feeding them dog food and apple slices.
They have already bred for me, and I expect I'll have a robust culture of them fairly soon.
Last year, along with the Papuaphiloscia laevis I got from Satchell Watts-Kerr, there were some stowaway Venezillo parvus in with them, presumably also from New Orleans, LA. I didn't yet have a wild type culture of this species established, so I figured I'd isolate some out and get on that. Fast forward several months, and I now have a robust culture of these. 😄
They're in a minimally ventilated container with a couple inches of old roach substrate (mostly coco coir and roach frass), topped with leaf litter. I'm keeping them moist, at around 75-80F°, and am feeding them dog food as a supplemental diet.
Nice to finally have a wild type colony of this diminutive species going, with locality data no less!
Last Roachcrossing Bugapalooza, I won a pair of Kyle's Blaberus atropos "Shinigami" project. These were isolated from the "Wynwood, FL" stock, and chose for the high black markings on the pronotum. So these no longer throw out the standard square markings on the pronotal disc, but rather the more "hammerhead" type markings. Supposedly if raised at a higher humidity, even more of their pronotums will come out black, and Kyle is continuing to refine and cull his stock to try and get the entire pronotums to be black... I'm not sure if that's possible, and if it is it will probably take many more years of line breeding, but I suppose I'll try and refine my culture as well while I keep them.
I've got my pair in a well ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coco fiber, topped with bark and eggcrate hides. I keep them at around 80-85F°, and feed them dog food and apple slices.
I was keeping them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, which is probably why their pronotums came out with only the "hammerhead" type markings, instead of the higher black that this line supposedly already exhibits when kept more humid, so now I'm keeping the entire enclosure humid.
This female was quite gravid when I took these pics, and sure enough she gave birth not too long after. Hopefully the next generation I rear up will have even darker pronotums now that I'm raising them in more humid conditions to begin with. 👍
Last but not least, I'm happy to say all my Rochaina bilunata have made it to L5! I lost one in the process due to a mismolting fluke, so now I have 12 nymphs in total, but they all seem healthy and it shouldn't be long till they molt to L6!
They are so unbelievably adorable, and I am so excited to be documenting each instar of this iconic species! ☺️
Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
