It's about that time again, time to purge my phone of pictures, and post some of the better or more interesting ones. 😅
This time round, I am trying to culture this species myself, with success in breeding two other Deropeltis species now under my belt. I started with one healthy sp. "Tsavo West" ooth late last year, and was able to hatch successfully and rear the resulting nymphs to adulthood with little issue. Now the adults are laying ooths of their own, which I suspect will start hatching out over the coming months.
I am keeping them in a well ventilated setup with a thin layer of coco coir substrate, topped in cardboard rolls and eggcrate hides. I'm keeping them fairly humid, at around 75-85F°, and am feeding them dog food and apple slices.
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| Medium-Small nymph |
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| Large nymph |
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| Adult pair |
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| Female laying an ooth |
These are a huge species as far as Deropeltis go, and they put all the other currently cultured Deropeltis to shame. Very broad in morphology, and their ooths are often over an inch long! Definitely an impressive species, and one I hope to offer up in the near future!
My Deropeltis paulinoi are thriving, and are due for an enclosure refresh here soon. Such cute and colorful representatives of this genus, if not quite as velvety as some of the others.
Crazy how well these are thriving for me, and my other Deropeltis spp. are doing good too, really seems like high humidity and good ventilation are key to working with this genus!
My Gromphadorhina portentosa "Masoala" have been throwing these dark red/purple looking adults, a morph which I was able to isolate a true breeding colony of! I am calling this line "Plum", and think that describes their coloration very nicely. 😄
Unfortunately since moving them to a larger, permanent enclosure, they've not bred again, which is kinda weird... I suspect I overdid the ventilation and that they're now too dry, so I'm upping the humidity in their bin and hoping for the best ATM.
As you can see, quite an attractive morph, and from pure G.portentosa stock too! Hopefully they start breeding again soon so I can offer them up once more!
My latest pair of Archimandrita cf. tesselata "Cerro Chucanti, Darién Province, Panama - US Line" is doing well, and both have made it to maturity successfully! 😄 These are SO slow growing compared to the old hobby stock Archimandrita (probably A.marmorata), and average way bigger as well.
This pair is in a moderately ventilated bin with a few inches of a coco fiber and coco coir chunk substrate mix, topped with leaf litter and vertically slanted bark hides. I'm keeping them humid, at around 75-80F°, and am feeding them dog food and fruits.
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| Freshly molted adult male |
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| Fully darkened adult male |
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| Subadult female nymph |
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| Adult female |
A beautiful and huge species, and still quite rare in US culture, hopefully my female will give birth sometime this year! 🙏
Last year I was able to finally acquire Liocheles australasiae, a parthenogenetic species of dwarf bark scorpion. They can be kept communally, though only one of the two I was rearing made it to adulthood (still unclear if it was eaten by the other, or died due to some other variable).
I'd say the ones I received were about half grown, and they took about 7-8 months to mature, at least the lone survivor did. She then took another 3-4 months to produce a brood of around 16-17 immatures. Not too shabby of a development time, and that was a big first brood as well! 😄
I'm keeping them in a minimally ventilated gallon container, with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks and lots of bark pieces. I am keeping them moist, at around 80-85F°. There are Trichorhina tomentosa, Compsodes schwarzi, and Nocticola vagus breeding in there, though I do have to top off the roaches sometimes as they are eaten faster than they breed. There are also Pyrgodesmidae sp. "Kota Kinabalu" breeding in there, which is funny as they were not a purposeful introduction.
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| Adult female |
These are super cute little scorps, and I'm hoping to make them available later this year if my colony establishes well and they aren't cannibalizing like crazy or anything.
Last but not least, my Polyphaga saussurei are doing well for me, cohabbed with Porcellio incanus. Got some nice pictures of an adult female and figured I would post them here. 😊
Fun fact, these were the second species I ever posted about on this blog! Crazy how far I've come since then, and how far the hobby itself has advanced in the last decade. 😄
Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
