Housing:
This species is the largest of the US camel crickets, and they are huge, so for a starter culture you'll want something like a 3 gallon bin, with a larger colony needing a 5 gallon enclosure or even larger. While this species appreciates a good amount of floor space, good height is very important as well, seeing as they are arboreal, and larger individuals can jump several feet away when disturbed. These crickets can not climb smooth surfaces, but on account of their jumping skills, a relatively tight fitting lid is recommended.
About an inch or two of substrate in the form of coconut fiber, potting soil, peat moss, etc. works well for this species. Lots of hides in the form of vertically slanted bark pieces should be provided, and small/medium sized nymphs will hide in leaf litter, eggcrates and even paper towel rolls as well. Verticality is important for this species, as they hang down from their back legs and need the aid of gravity to molt properly, especially as they age.
Camel crickets are usually pretty territorial and protein hungry, so having lots of surface area is very important for them, and if this species gets too crowded they can knock each other down while molting or outright cannibalize each other.
This species likes a pretty humid enclosure, with a moderate to high amount of ventilation. Just make sure not to let them dry out, and that the ventilation holes aren't big enough for the nymphs to escape from.
Diet:
Dog/cat/chick feed, fruits and veggies work well as their staple diet, and they will scavenge on pre-killed invertebrates as well. They are rather protein hungry, so if they go a while without food or are mostly fed fruits and veggies, they'll start cannibalizing each other pretty quickly.
Food bowls such as plastic milk or juice caps are recommended, however camel crickets are such messy eaters that you'll likely have lots of leftover crumb scattered around the enclosure that you'll need to spot clean every now and then.
Temperature:
They appear able to breed at temps from 68-80F°, and seem to do best in the middle of that temperature range. If temps rise much above 75F° and the enclosure is poorly ventilated, that can kill cultures (or at least large nymphs and adults) quickly.
Breeding/Life cycle:
Adults seem to live for around 6-8 months, and are easy to sex, as females have a rather long ovipositor that males lack. Females lay at least a few dozen eggs throughout their adult lifespan, which only seem to take 1-2 months to hatch depending on the temperature. The resulting nymphs take 6-9 months to mature under optimal conditions. Southern strains of this species do not need a diapause, but northern strains probably do.
Cannibalism rates can be rather high in camel crickets compared to some true crickets, especially amongst the territorial males, but keeping them in a spacious enclosure, providing plenty of hides and surface area, and consistently feeding them protein rich foods will help greatly to keep cannibalism to a minimum. Making sure that there's a lot of little crevices for the small nymphs to hide in by adding leaf litter or smaller bark hides to the enclosure also helps keep the adults from snacking on them.
Camel crickets can be sensitive to overcrowding, and often either knock each other down while molting or just cannibalize on each other until the numbers are to their liking. However, this species in particular seems to be especially tolerant of crowding, and I've had no issues keeping them pretty crowded, other than the adults maturing at a smaller size due to space constraints and more food competition.
Also worth noting, small colonies of this species can be pretty sensitive to large numbers of big, fast breeding springtails like Sinella curviseta.
Overall these weird little orthopterans are very interesting to watch, aren't noisy or smelly at all, and are rather easy to provide for. Even if neglected for a week or two, colonies usually don't die off completely, so they are relatively forgiving compared to other cave crickets. Definitely one of the more interesting species I've had the pleasure of keeping!
