I recently acquired a new line of
Agabiformius cf.
lentus from Trastevere, Italy. They were collected in potted plants outside a little tourist shop there, and are quite cute little things. I really love the reddish-orange margins to their bodies, and their very squat morphology overall.
I have them in a well ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate topped with bark and leaf litter. I am keeping them humid, at around 75-80F, and am feeding dog food as their supplemental diet.
Here are some pictures of them:
A cute new strain of this species that I hope we'll see firmly established in the hobby going forward!
Last year I crossed Porcellio hoffmanseggii "Orange" and "White-Out" to attempt to create a yellow morph (as has been done in Porcellionides pruinosus). Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful, none of their offspring or their offspring's offspring produced anything unusual, instead just a rather even mix of wild types, oranges and white individuals. So I threw all of the project containers into one culture, which I am using the term "Lottery Mix" for (a common strain name for a mix of different morphs thrown together).
If anyone wants any of these to attempt to isolate morphs out of, I do have them available on my
For Sale page now. Keep in mind that because of the many genetics at play, isolating any of these morphs from the culture may be more difficult than isolating for typical simple recessive traits.
Hopefully something interesting will pop out of this culture one day, but I'm not holding my breath.
Here's another new species for me, Armadilloniscus sp. "Lido Beach, Venice, Italy". These are a dwarf, coastal species that thankfully do not seem to require saline conditions. They have VERY small broods of half a dozen or less at a time, and seem to prefer damp but not soaking wet conditions.
I have mine in a moderately ventilated container with a thin layer of sand mixed with a small amount of coco fiber, topped in coco coir chunks and leaf litter. I am feeding them fish food pellets and algae wafers as their supplemental diet.
Here are a couple half decent photos I was able to snatch of a large individual:
I know some have kept the native/adventive species found here in the US before, but normally with very limited and short term success. So here's hoping this Italian species will do well for me long term.
Lastly, it's high time I showed off my
Schultesia lampyridiformis, AKA the "Firefly Mimic Cockroach". I got mine from
Brandon Maines last year, and they are now absolutely popping off. This species is a good alternative feeder, despite mimicking a very distasteful beetle, they are perfectly safe to consume and an active, non-burrowing species. They are rumored to be found in abandoned bird nests in the wild, which is an interesting observation, I'm sure they would also be found in accumulations of debris caught in branches in trees and tree holes as well.
I have mine set up in a moderately ventilated gallon jar, with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate topped with a bunch of artificial fern fronds for hides. I keep them dry, and at around 80-85F, and feed them dog food and apple slices.
Here are some pictures of them swarming an apple slice:
A pretty and unique little species of roach, that for whatever reason are lumped into Zetoborinae, the subfamily containing all the flat bark roaches like Capucina, Lanxoblatta, Phortioeca, Schizopilia, etc., weird right? Wonder if that will change in the future.
Anyways, that's it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
