Invertebrate Dude

Saturday, August 29, 2026

Panesthia angustipennis spadica, Cancun Cockroaches & More!

I've had Panesthia angustipennis spadica in my collection for a couple years now, and have FINALLY gotten around to posting about them! 🤣 I've had adults since last year, and said adults have already bred, but I've just not gotten around to getting decent pictures of them until now.

Up until I gave Kyle a starter culture earlier this year, I was the only person working with these in the states. They are very slow growing and breeding compared to the other angustipennis subspecies in the hobby, and seem to have smaller broods as well. This species sports jet black coloration, with no colorful patterns on the nymphs at any life stage (though L1-L2 nymphs have orange legs). They are also the largest of the angustipennis subspecies, at least in culture, maxing out a little larger than P.a.angustipennis and way bigger than P.a.cognata.

I have mine in a minimally ventilated 5 gallon bin filled with aged sawdust substrate, with some larger white and brown rot wood chunks buried in there. I keep them quite humid, at around 75-80F°, and I'm feeding them dog food and apple as their supplemental diet.

Adult female

Phone pics of babies

Anyways, looking forward to producing more litters from these and getting them more firmly established in US culture! 😄

The GOAT Alan Jeon sent me a great many things last month, with this pair of Pseudophyllodromiidae sp. "Cancun, MX" being one of the most precious. This species has very ornately patterned nymphs, and the adults really remind me of a pretty Balta or more monotone Ellipsidion species. This species is brand new to culture, and I may or may not be the only person with a breedable culture left (Kyle had some but seems he may have failed with his, unless they produced some ooths he's unaware of). So far mine seem to be doing well, so fingers crossed I can establish a colony! 🤞

I've got mine in a well ventilated gallon jar with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks, artificial foliage and cardboard roll hides. I'm aiming for a 50/50 humidity gradient (more vertical than horizontal at this point), have them at around 80-85F°, and am feeding them dog food, artificial pollen and fresh fruits.

Adult male

Phone pics of female producing ooth

My female has produced at least three oothecae so far, very large ones too (the one pictured is about the length of her abdomen!). So fingers crossed I'll find hatchlings within the next month or two, and get a thriving colony established!

Speaking of Ellipsidion... after decades of US hobbyists pining for them, we finally have Ellipsidion amplum in culture! 😄 Big thanks to Kyle for sending me a dozen or so nymphs, which I will need to get some decent pics of soon, as their coloration is stunning (and variable). Two males have matured so far (and I did get pics of one of those), supposedly this is a rather prolific and easy species to breed, as long as you get the humidity right (high air humidity, low surface moisture).

Phone pics of an adult male

Roach hobbyists are eating GOOD this year in terms of new hobby additions, so many beautiful and long sought after species, finally entering the hobby. Now here's hoping we can keep them around! 😄

Earlier this Summer, Kyle gave me some Entomobryoides cf. dissimilis "Livonia, MI", a last minute addition to the assortment of bugs I brought back from my visit to his place. I threw them in with my Megaloblatta blaberoides and kinda forgot about them, that is until they became firmly established in that bin. 😄 I've since moved them to a bin of their own, as well as a few other roach setups, they seem a nice, steady but not explosive breeder, and pretty large too. I can definitely see them being a good CUC species (they certainly seem to be playing the part nicely in my Megaloblatta bin).

This species seems to prefer a humid, but not overly moist environment, with bark being their preferred surface area. Breeds at a wide variety of temps, and feeds on normal springtail foods.

Definitely glad I added these to my collection, here's hoping they'll stick around!

Lastly, my next generation of Hemiblabera brunneri "Manati, PR" has started maturing out! They've proven pretty easy to rear, and my original female has given birth to three broods total so far. With husbandry this simple and patterning this striking, these are sure to become a hobby staple over the coming years. 😁

Phone pics of adult males

Such a stunning new addition to the hobby, Hemiblabera in general are really slept on, but I'm hoping additions like these H.brunneri (and the other new species from PR, that I haven't posted about yet... 👀) will help to change that.

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

Sunday, August 16, 2026

New Isopods, Springtails, & More!

A few months back, Kyle at Roachcrossing sent me some Euborellia cincticollis from an AL locality. Unfortunately they were infected with Trichoderma and died within a week of arrival, however the Cubaris murina "Citrus" he had sent in the same cup as them had no such issues, and what was originally supposed to be an earwig enclosure has become an isopod enclosure. 😆 Fine by me, as I didn't have this morph of C.murina yet, and truth be told I don't really want multiple localities of E.cincticollis THAT badly anyways.

I have these set up in a moderately ventilated jar with a couple inches of a coco fiber and sand mixture, topped in leaf litter and bark. I'm keeping them humid, and at around 80-85F°, with dog food as the staple supplemental diet.

These are about as easy to keep as it gets when it comes to isopods, and so it's no surprise that their numbers have skyrocketed in a short time.

Last year I traded Alyssa at Forests of Asgard for some Armadillidium flavoscutatum "Albania", a beautiful new addition to culture. Immatures and smaller sexually mature individuals have bright red heads and first body segments, however as they age into large adults it seems many lose much of the red coloration. There may be a genetic component to that as well, but it seems age may play more of a roll in the coloration.

These actually proved difficult for me to establish at first, and I almost lost them a couple times. I was told this species prefers it drier, and perhaps when provided low ventilation levels or in a climate with much higher ambient humidity than mine, that would be true.

However I've found that mine do best when the entire enclosure is kept humid (at least with good ventilation in my arid climate), and since making that change they have started doing really well and have exploded in numbers. 😄

I now have mine in a well ventilated gallon shoebox, with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate topped in coco coir chunks, bark pieces and leaf litter. I'm feeding them dog food and fish food pellets as their supplemental diet, and am keeping the entire enclosure humid, at around 75-80F°.

A beautiful species, and I'm really glad I was able to figure out their husbandry, albeit with a little trial and error. 😅

These next inverts were yet another stowaway, this time with some brown rot wood from Green Bay, WI (which I needed for Cryptocercus I am working with), which I didn't sterilize. Lo and behold, these Ptenothrix sp. started popping up, and I've now isolated a culture in their own enclosure, which is doing well. 😄

I've got them in a moderately ventilated container with a substrate of aged sawdust, topped with some of the brown rot wood chunks they were collected on (sterilized, since the wood also came with large predatory mites that were eating the springtails). I'm keeping them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, at about 70-73F°, and am feeding them dog food as the staple diet (I suspect they also feed on the rotten wood).

So far they seem easy to keep and breed, if a bit slow growing/breeding. Probably not much utility as a cleaner crew, but they are a fascinating species in their own right!

I had a few more Alaus oculatus "Hoover, AL" mature out, and have a couple more in the pupal stage, so it's looking like I may have another round of larvae being produced here within the next few months.

Snapped some photos of these adults with my phone, which I think came out pretty good!

Definitely the easiest of the Alaus to culture IMO, the others can be a bit of a pain in terms of getting them to mature in sync.

Last, but certainly not least, I traded Adrian at Cypress Inverts & Exotics for a group of Pseudarmadillo gillianus! 😍 These are amazingly colorful and spiny Cuban endemics, that are still quite rare and hard to come by in the hobby. I've been trying to get my hands on this genus for years, and I'm so glad to have finally gotten them! 😄

I have mine set up in a moderately ventilated enclosure with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate as the base, topped with flake soil, coco coir chunks and bark chips. On top of that are a few layers of bark, leaf litter and moss. I'm keeping them humid, at around 80-85F°, and am offering fish food pellets as their supplemental diet.

Only have a few subpar phone pics of them here, in the future I'll try and get some better camera pictures of them, but for now I want to leave them alone and let them acclimate. They seem to be doing well for now, and I've seen lots of mating action, so hopefully that means babies are on the way! 😄

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