A Phortioeca Preview!

That's right, we now have Phortioeca sp. "Ecuador" in the US hobby! 😁 I've just collaborated with two of the most prominent members of US Blatticulture to get these beauties into the US, and I'm glad to say it was a success! 

Now, these individuals are all going to those two respective hobbyists, but once they breed theirs I will be getting a culture of this species as well, so this is a little preview of what's to come in the future! 😄

Here are some pictures of the medium nymphs of this beautiful new species:

Very pretty right? Adults are awesome looking too, see this picture here of what appears to be the same species as this one.

I'm looking forward to seeing these beauties become established in US Blatticulture, and I can't wait to get to keep some myself next year! 😁

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

A Couple Small Teneb Updates

First off, my Eleodes obscura sulcipennis larvae are all growing well, looks like they're gonna be mature soon! 😁 Here are some pictures of the larvae:

I'm looking forward to hopefully rearing some large adults up here soon! 😄

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Sadly, two of my Iphthiminus serratus larvae have died, leaving me with only three large larvae... I'm afraid I didn't keep their deli cups dark enough, and so only the three larvae with substrate that went all the way up to the lids of their deli cups were able to eat the chick feed I offered them, as their enclosures were darker. The other two had slightly more shallow substrate with almost a CM between the substrate and the lids, and they were the ones who weren't eating their chick feed. 

This also seems to suggest that rotten wood alone is not enough to sustain them, they do require protein of some sort to grow and develop. 

Oh well, this sucks, but hopefully I can rear these three survivors up successfully...

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Lastly, on a brighter note, the first of the Eleodes (Blapylis) sp. pupae emerged weeks ago, here are some pictures of a CB adult, still soft and teneral, but fully darkened:

This species is doing well, hopefully I'll have lots more adults soon and can get the next generation up and running! 

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

Pink Roach Pictures

Just had one of my female Gyna capucina nymphs mature, hopefully more will mature here shortly. 

I decided to take some pictures of one of the males, as well as this new female, here they are:

Adult male

Adult female

This female came out really pink looking, and these are the best pictures of this species I think I've gotten so far! Really hope they breed for me soon, I need a couple good litters to get the colony back to it's former shape. 

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

The Princisia Conundrum...

Unfortunately, the purity of my Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big" culture has become quite questionable... I've been waiting on my subadult male to mature, and he finally has, but unfortunately his coloration is abnormal for adults of pure stock...

Here are some pictures of him as a subadult:

Now, I was hoping that he'd display more vibrant abdominal coloration as an adult, as is typical of this species, (see my "key" here), but unfortunately, that was not the case:

As you can see, the yellow abdominal border, while technically present, is so thin it's practically nonexistent... 😕 In fact, the second and third abdominal segments seem to lack the border entirely. But, he does have the proper pronotum shape for Princisia, with the pronotum shape being quite variable in hybrid stock. However, that feature is again, variable in hybrid stock, so I'd need a larger sample of males from this strain to determine if the pronotum shape is consistent or not. 

Here are a few pictures of my adult female, who has normal, pure coloration:

So, I am seriously doubting the purity of this strain now. One one hand, the adult female and my other subadult female have completely normal coloration for pure bred P.vanwaerebeki "Big", but on the other hand, the male lacks the normal, proper abdominal coloration. However, this strain is very finicky and slow breeding like pure Princisia are supposed to be, hybrids are typically much hardier, and the male does have the proper pronotum structure that pure bred Princisia have... So I don't know. 

I'm gonna have to wait see what the adult males of the next generation look like, if they all have the proper pronotum shape then they may very well be pure Princisia, and this individual just had abberant coloration. However if even the females of the next generation and more of the males have abberant coloration, and the males have variable pronotum shapes, then this strain is definitely hybrid stock. I'm already leaning towards them probably being hybrid stock with this latest revelation. 😐

Also, one last thing I would like to note, I have this pre-subadult female that has weird coloration, which in itself isn't that unusual, but she has also been stuck at this instar for an abnormally long time, and refuses to fatten up and molt... I suspect she's going to die, don't know why, but she suddenly decided to stop growing. 

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, kind of a downer, because if these aren't pure, then there probably aren't any pure Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big" left in the US hobby. Oh well, guess you can't win them all! 

Well, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉

Prionotheca Update #4

So, on September 6, the first of the two larvae to construct pupal cells pupated! 😁 Unfortunately I have not been able to get pictures of said pupa, for fear of accidentally causing the cell to collapse by handling the enclosure... But so far, so good, hopefully it'll eclose successfully in the coming weeks. 

As for the second larva to make a pupal cell, I unfortunately did collapse it's cell slightly, and thus, after a few days, I removed it from it's damaged cell and placed it in an artificial one I had constructed. Much to my surprise though, despite not moving much at all within it's cell previously, this larva became quite active when removed from it's cell and dug right down into the substrate I had placed it on... So I have moved it to a new, well ventilated container, with a mix of moist coconut fiber and sand in the bottom layer, and it has made a completely new pupal cell. Here's hoping this one won't collapse on it, the coconut fiber should help keep it more stable.

As for the other two larvae, they are still doing well and growing, so fingers crossed they'll both reach a large, normal size before pupating! 

Here are some pictures of one of the two active, growing larva:

So hairy, I absolutely love their broad heads and very pallid coloration, so unique! 😁 Looking forward to seeing them grow huge, and fingers crossed those two premature pupaters will at least be a pair! 🤞

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