Click Beetles & Roaches (Kinda Picture Heavy, Not Sure if That's a Bad Thing or Not...)

So, after checking all my click beetle larva I have a few updates to give.

First off, my 4 Ampedus larva have dwindled down to 3, and one of the remaining larvae has matured! I have put an image up on Bugguide, hopefully the experts there will be able to identify it down to species. 

Here is a picture of the adult:

Also, my Melanotus cf. castanipes larva has matured, and apparently it is probably not M.castanipes, what species it is exactly has yet to be determined. 

Here are some pictures of the adult:

Also, all of my Aeolus livens and A.mellillus adults have died off without laying any eggs, all I have are three wild caught larva, presumably of A.livens.

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Now to my roach updates!

The biggest and most exciting development in my collection since I have last posted is that my female Paranauphoeta discoidalis has given birth! I've been waiting quite a while for her to give birth, and was beginning to wonder if the male she mated with was too old to fertilize her, (he died a few weeks after she matured). Luckily he was still virile enough for her, and there are now a few babies crawling around in the enclosure. It seems this species has rather small litters, which typically only contain four to six hatchlings according to "For the Love of Cockroaches".

Here are some pictures of the babies:

Really glad these have bred for me, hopefully the female will give birth to more litters soon!

My Blaberus sp. "Venezuela" male has matured, and he is a beauty! My female is not too far behind, I'm pretty sure she is a pre-sub adult. He has a back pronotum spot, though some individuals of this species can have a more reddish pronotum spot.

Here are some pictures of him:

I really like this genus, particularly the smaller, stouter ones like these and B.atropos. Hopefully my female matures soon, would love it if she had an reddish pronotum spot!

Unfortunately, it seems one of my Byrsotria fumigata females has a prolapse, which is when the inner walls of her bowels basically turn inside out and are visible outside her, which is pretty gross sounding and is definitely not a good thing. It usually happens when females try to give birth or defecate, and something goes wrong or is blocking the way. I had a female Gromphadorhina sp. "Hybrid" who prolapsed, it dried up and fell off after a couple of weeks, she is still alive today I believe. Hopefully the same will happen to this Byrsotria, would be a shame if she passed away.

Here are some pictures of her, (viewer discretion is advised):

And now, here are some random photos of a couple of roaches that I have taken in the past few days, not much has changed with them but I wanted to photograph them anyway:

Hemiblabera tenebricosa mating, (A rare sight, these guys are pretty shy!)

Polyphaga saussurei nymphs

Well, that's going to be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)

My Wood Is Rotten! Plus Some Click Beetle Stuff...

My Traeger wood pellets are finally done fermenting! It smells earthy, and is a dark brown color, so it is now ready to be used for my bugs! Truth be told, I don't have many species that need it, so it is not extremely useful right now. But I do have some click beetle larva that will probably benefit from a substrate of rotten wood and leaves, so I will be rehousing my click beetle larva and using the rotten wood as the substrate.
I have a single click beetle larva of an unknown species that I found in a log in the summer of 2014 that I have been trying to pupate, but apparently it is not ready yet, so I have rehoused it and I have used my rotten Traeger wood pellets and some dead leaves as the substrate. Here are some pictures of the larva!

Unknown click beetle larva

Tail close-up

Head close-ups

Hopefully this guy does well, I would really like to see what it turns into! :)
In regards to my Aeolus sp, one of my two adults died, and the three larva are doing well and are eating cat food.
As for my Alaus melanops larva, I thought it was going to pupate, but alas, I was wrong. I put a bunch of mealworms in its enclosure for it to eat, so far it has not shown signs of eating. Will keep you guys posted on any interesting developments.
Well, that's it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post! :)

100th Post Update Extravaganza!

This is my 100th blog post! I would like to thank you guys for reading my blog, and also for 2190 page views! I hope you guys stick around, cause I don't plan on quitting culturing invertebrates anytime soon!  So lets get to the many updates!

Update #1: Hemiblabera tenebricosa.
So, after a few months of waiting, one of my females has given birth! There are lots of little nymphs in the substrate and they all seem like they are doing good. Here are some pictures!

Update #2: Parcoblatta americana.
So, about a week ago a weird fungus appeared in my P.americana enclosure, and it basically turned the substrate into one big mat. So I painstakingly removed every one of the roaches out of the enclosure and then changed the substrate and cleaned the cage out. Here is what the enclosure looks like now:

Update #3: Therea olegrandjeani & Ergaula capucina.
Both of these species have been doing very well for me, and they have been laying lots of ootheca!! I finally got around to taking some pictures of the ootheca, here they are.

E.capucina ooth

T.olegrandjeani ooth

Update #4: Tasgius melanarius.
I have bred this species in the past, but was not very successful, so I am going to try again this year! The adults are pretty picky, they will pretty much only eat isopods, their favorite is A.vulgare. They will sometimes eat pre-killed mealworms, but not with any vigor. They will lay eggs in moist coconut fiber, which hatch a few days later. The larva are cannibalistic, and need to be kept separately. They will eat isopods, but will accept pre-killed mealworms and small roach nymphs. Once mature, the larva will burrow to the bottom of their container and make a pupal cell. The pupa is orange-ish at first, but as it gets closer to enclosing it turns black. Anyway, this year I have 2 adults and one larva. I will keep you guys posted on their developments. Here are some pictures of the adults:

Here's the cage

Update #5: Aeolus sp.
I just wanted to show you guys the cage I am housing the adults in. It is nothing fancy, just a medium sized deli cup with coconut fiber as the substrate and a small piece of cardboard as a hide. I have been feeding the adults apple, carrot and cat food, all of which they seem to eat. Here is the cage:

So that is it for this post, I really hope you guys enjoyed! I got some stuff brewing in the bug room, so stay tuned for future posts. Have a nice day! :)

Another Click Beetle Project

I caught a few Aeolus sp this week, and I am going to try to breed them! I have kept this species before, with less than satisfying results. They will lay eggs in moist coconut fiber, and the hatchling larva are tiny. However, I had assumed that they were the normal wireworm type, and that they could peacefully co-exist with each other. Turns out, these guys are like mini Alaus sp larva, and are highly predatory and cannibalistic. After a few months, I was left with one big, fat larva that eventually pupated and matured into an adult. This time, I plan on separating the larva and will feed them tiny mealworms or fungus gnat larva, etc. I found two adults and one nearly mature larva, I will try to find some more this week. Here are some pics!

Adults

Larva

Hopefully this attempt will be successful! Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed! :)