Last year
Alan Jeon sent me some
Cariblatta sp. "Kendall, FL". These are a fully macroapterous species, and have not previously been recorded from FL. So either they are an undescribed native, or more likely IMO, an invasive species that's gone unnoticed until now with a localized population. The nymphs have a very speckled, "freckled" appearance. Adults look much like
Neoblattella detersa IMO, with more of a yellowish tinge to them.
I have them set up in a half gallon jar with a fully vented lid, with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate topped with coco coir chunks. I am keeping them humid, and at around 75-85F. They are being fed dog food and apple slices as the staple diet.
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| Adult female |
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| Adult male |
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| Nymphs |
They have established quite well for me, a nice addition to my collection of Pseudophyllodromiids. Hopefully these will be identified/described one day, would be nice to put a name to them!
Unfortunately my Blaps cf. mucronata project has not gone well for me. I have been unable to rear any healthy adults of this species up, rearing larvae and inducing pupation is rather easy, but after that all of mine either died as pupae or as teneral adults. Most just failed to molt successfully out of their pupal skins and came out too deformed to survive. I have given them a wide variety of conditions, and yet have not been able to determine whether they need dry or moist substrate, warm or cool temps, or what substrate they want for successful eclosion.
Thankfully, I did sent some larvae to Kyle at Roachcrossing, and he has managed to rear a few to seemingly healthy adults so far, so hopefully he can get a colony established from his group. I still have some WC adults, which I am giving a diapause to induce egg laying in the Spring, if there are even pairs left that is... If they don't produce in the Spring I'll probably just send them all to Kyle and let him carry the torch for this project.
I must admit I have become disinterested with darklings as of late, particularly those that I do not have the room to set up communal pupation/breeding setups for. So with the exception of some species near and dear to my heart, and those that are easy for me to rear from egg to adult in a communal setup, I expect to reduce my Tenebrionid collection quite a bit over the coming months. These Blaps may be one of the species I give up, though it does irk me to not have reared at least one successful generation up, so IDK...
I got some Epilampra maya "Arcadia, FL" from my buddy Brandon Maines back in 2024, a really neat species that is found alongside streams in the wild that will dive into the water at a moments notice as a way of escaping predators. Thankfully a water feature is not necessary for captive breeding, and if you did want to keep these semi-aquatically, you would need some heavy duty filtration to keep the water clean enough to prevent bacterial infections in this species (the water must also be moving, again these are found alongside streams, not stagnant bodies of water).
They have proven to be a much easier species to keep and breed consistently than a lot of their old world Rhabdoblattinae counterparts. These were breeding super prolifically for me and then had a crash due to overpopulation and a severe grain mite infestation, however they were easy enough to pull out of their crash, and I now have several healthy adult pairs that I am expecting babies from any day now.
I have my colony in a moderately ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coco coir substrate, topped with leaf litter and bark hides. I am feeding them dog food and apple as the staple diet, keeping them moist, and at around 75-80F.
Definitely an underrated species, with such a neat ecology. Here's hoping I get some more litters produced here soon so I can make them available once more.
My
Arenivaga genitalis "Sahuarita, AZ" are doing great, and I finally got around to snapping pictures of an adult female. It is really nice to be able to put a species name to this strain, thanks to
Alan's work on dissecting and keying out several hobby
Arenivaga strains.
These are now available BTW, if anyone wants to add some to their collection (which I would highly recommend). 😊
Lastly, but not leastly, I got a group of Armadillo tuberculatus from Box Father/Kobak Bug Farm on Discord some months ago (whose packing was great, and the overcount was hefty as well!). These are a more heavily textured species, especially as immatures, and while not quite as large as A.officinalis, they are still a chunky and relatively large isopod species. They seem to have a bit of a glaucous coating, a common adaptation in species from arid areas to prevent some moisture loss. These are a slower breeding species, and I've just now started finding some offspring from them.
I have them in my Bantua robusta bin, so a well ventilated 5 gallon bin with an inch or so of coco coir substrate, topped with leaf litter and bark, with one third of the substrate kept moist, the rest dry. I'm feeding the Bantua dog food and apple slices, so I'm sure the Armadillo are eating the dog food at least, and possibly some of the Bantua frass as well as the leaf litter. They're being kept at around 80-85F.
They seem to be taking to the Bantua setup quite well, and as I previously mentioned I just found babies in the setup a couple weeks ago. So hopefully I'll have a thriving colony of these in no time. 😁
Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
