I received some Platymeris laevicollis from Paulo Padilla several months back, and they have finally started maturing! Care for these has been the same as for other Platymeris thus far, bare bottom enclosure, eggcrate hides, and I'm just throwing in whatever roaches I have excess of at the time for them to feed on.
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| Teneral adult |
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| Fully hardened adult |
A beautiful species for sure, and the last one I needed to complete my collection of the commonly cultured African Reduviidae!
Next up, I got some Oligotoma saundersii "Florida City, FL" from Kyle at Roachcrossing, which is a type of webspinner! These are primitive insects, that spends their lives inside silken tubes they make under/atop organic debris, which they spin from glands in their front feet! Super unusual little dudes that are not commonly cultured, even though they are actually very easy to keep and breed!
I have mine in a moderately ventilated container with a thin layer of coco coir substrate, topped with coconut coir chunks and leaf litter. I'm keeping a corner of the enclosure humid, the rest dry, and they are kept at around 75-80F°. I feed them dog food as their staple diet. They definitely prefer the drier side and I almost never see them in the moist area, though I do think they need a certain level of humidity to survive, complete dryness is probably a no go.
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| Adult female |
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| Adult male |
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| Pair |
They have bred very well for me so far and are quite well established in their container, I'll probably need to move them to something bigger soon!
Earlier this year I was accidentally sent a group of Lucihormetica grossei (which I already owned) in trade with Paulo, a mistake which was promptly corrected by him. Anyways, the Lucihormetica had some Cubaris murina "Papaya" hitchhikers in with them, which I promptly isolated and moved to their own container. Several months later and I've now got a good colony going of them, so yay for free bugs! 😆
I have them in a minimally ventilated container with an inch or so of leftover roach/beetle substrate (so a mix of coco fiber, sand and clay soil), topped with leaf litter and eggcrate hides. I'm feeding them dog food and fish food as the supplemental diet, am keeping the entire enclosure humid and at around 75F°.
Believe it or not, these are the first and only Cubaris murina I've ever seen in person. They are surprisingly quite pink, like almost "Cherry Blossom" pink, with a bit more of a tan/salmon tint to them. Pretty dang easy and hardy, and I'm glad I finally have a form of murina in my collection now. 😆
Months ago I won a pretty decent sized group of Porcellio incanus from another one of Roachcrossing's auctions, which I threw into my Polyphaga saussurei enclosure. I'm happy to report they have acclimated well and are breeding, so they seem to like those conditions.
The setup in question is well ventilated, with a couple inches of coco fiber substrate topped in leaf litter. I threw in some bark pieces just for these to hide under/cling to as well. In addition to the leaf litter they also get dog food as their supplemental diet (if the saussurei don't get to it first). I keep a third of the substrate moist, the rest dry, and have them at around 75-85F°.
They're a neat, more obscure species of Porcellio in culture, I hardly ever see people post about these. They have pretty glossy exoskeletons for Porcellio, at least compared to a lot of the others in culture.
Last but not least, earlier this year I won a group of Armadillidium depressum "Magic Potion" from Patty Mesich at Isotopia. These are just the Dalmatian morph expressed in this rather large Armadillidium species, and I gotta say they are quite pretty in person. 😁 The yellow mottling on them really pops, much more so in real life than in photos. Though they're not quite as vibrantly colored as A.vulgare "Magic Potion".
I've got mine housed in with one of my Ceuthophilus gracilipes cultures, a moderately ventilated setup with a couple inches of a coco fiber/sand mix substrate, topped with leaf litter, vertically slanted bark slabs, and eggcrate hides. They're being kept humid, at around 74-77F°. In addition to leaf litter, they get dog food as a supplemental diet, plus Ceuthophilus frass/bodies I suppose.
They are thriving in that setup and have already bred for me, this species apparently has very large brood sizes, I'd guess 30 or so mancae per litter!
Well, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
