Sadly, my last female Jerusalem cricket, Ripper, has passed away. 😞 All of her eggs have molded over as well, I also found another 30 eggs in her enclosure after she died, but those were all moldy as well.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, maybe one day I will try again, now that I know a lot more about their life cycles and mating habits.
My two remaining Ampedus sp larvae are doing well, unfortunately though, one is way bigger than the other, so the chances of them maturing at the same time and possibly mating are close to zero. Still, I'm glad they are doing well, and am excited to see them mature! :)
Unfortunately my Melanotus sp. "Kuna" are not doing so well, I am down to two now, apparently they are quite cannibalistic, should have known better than to try and rear them together...
Still, the two that are alive are pretty healthy looking and are about the same size, and I've just moved them each to their own deli cups. Who knows, with any luck they could be a male and a female! 😁
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, this week I'll be getting some really cool invertebrates, both from Kyle and from Gil Wizen, lots of exciting species, including a roach that has never been seen before in US culture! Hope you guys have a great day, take care!
Showing posts with label Ammopelmatus sp. "Long Beach - CA". Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ammopelmatus sp. "Long Beach - CA". Show all posts
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Hanging On by a Thread...
Well, as you guys may know, I am down to one female Arenivaga tonkawa. I have been pretty confused as to what age she is, when I got her I thought she was an adult due to her size, however after several months of never seeing her lay a single ooth, fertile or otherwise, I assumed that she was still a nymph.
However, today after checking on her, I found that she was beginning to laying an ooth! I have no idea whether it's fertile or not, she has not molted once in my care so I got her as an adult, so there is a chance she had already mated when I got her. However, I still have no idea why she has not laid any oothecae before now, even if she has not mated, she should still lay infertile oothecae like most roaches do.
I have noticed that my adult A.cf.genitalis female has not laid any ooths at all in the few months she's been mature though, so perhaps Arenivaga females do not lay infertile oothecae like other roaches do, maybe to conserve more resources. But if this ootheca is fertile, I still don't know why she has not laid any other ooths prior to this one, I have searched through the substrate and have not found any oothecae at all, maybe I need to look closer...
Anyway, here are some pictures of the female laying the ootheca!
Hopefully this oothecae turns out to be fertile, would be nice to get babies out of this species without having to buy more!
My Dorylaea orini adults are starting to die off, and most of the oothecae have turned out to be infertile, even some of the good looking ones. :( I have taken out the last 5 oothecae that look fairly healthy, there is a good chance that they are all duds, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some may hatch!
Here is a picture of the oothecae:
I really hope at least one ooth hatches, I really wanted this species to do well for me, they are very beautiful!
Unfortunately it seems my Rhabdoblatta formosana colony is crashing, NONE of my adults are reproducing, they keep aborting their oothecae, I even separated a few individuals to their own, new enclosure, and still no luck. I'm pretty sure it's the large numbers of Alphitobius diaperinus and Porcellio scaber that are stressing them out, so this week I will be completely cleaning out their cage of all other invertebrates and replacing the substrate and decor in a last-ditch effort to save my culture, though I'm not too optimistic that it will change anything.
Anyway, here are some pictures of a nice looking female, if my colony crashes these may be the last pictures you guys see of this species on my blog. :(
Hopefully I can get things to turn around for these guys, will be sure to keep you all posted!
It's been a while since I posted about my Melanolestes picipes, mainly because I have failed miserably at breeding them. :( My nymphs all matured, however they were extremely aggressive to each other, and when I tried pairing them up to mate, the females would often eat the males, except for one savage male that ended up killing all but one of my females. I paired those two together, and they seemed to do well with each other for a couple weeks, then the male died.
Unfortunately I never saw any mating activity, and my female has not laid a single egg, so it seems once she dies, this species will be gone from my collection.
Here are some pictures I took of her today, she had lived a surprisingly long time, possibly because she has not had to deal with the stress of reproducing.
Well, it was certainly fun keeping these guys, sucks that I wasn't able to get another generation out of them, but I'm still glad I got the chance to keep these neat critters nonetheless. Later this year I may try keeping some larger, more easily cultured assassin bugs, so I'm looking forward to that! :)
Lastly, and what is perhaps the biggest tragedy to happen in my collection recently, all but one of my Jerusalem cricket eggs have molded over and died. This last egg looks really plump and healthy, however even if it hatches, I will not be able to breed it. :( Surprisingly, my female, Ripper, is still alive, really amazed at her longevity!
This was a breeding project that I was really hoping would end in a success, however it seems it was just not meant to be. Maybe I'll try again one day, at least now I have more experience in mating JCs, and know a lot more about their care needs than I used to!
Well I hope you guys enjoyed this somber post, usually I only like to post about my successes, but I do want to post about all my experiences breeding invertebrates on this blog, both the good and the bad, so here we are. Anyways, will see you guys soon, hope you all have a great day/night! :)
Monday, February 13, 2017
Some Misc Updates
First off, let's start with a Jerusalem cricket update. Unfortunately Sam has died, I found her on top of the substrate next to two eggs, I searched the substrate and sadly found no other eggs. I don't know why she died before laying all her eggs, I should have gotten over twenty from her. Strangely enough, Ripper is still doing well, I thought she would die soon after laying her second clutch, but she's still kicking, so that's good.
Some of the eggs are still molding over, it appears to be rather random, some of the old eggs have molded over and some of the new ones have as well, and yet there are still some eggs from both clutches that seem perfectly healthy. Hopefully some of them will avoid perishing and hatch, I would really like to get a second generation of these guys going. Will keep you all posted.
My Corydidarum pygmaea are doing great, the babies are getting plumper, I'm pretty sure they are all going to molt again soon. I realized I never took any pictures of their new enclosure, so I took a couple of pictures today just so you guys have an idea of how they are housed.
Here is their enclosure:
They really like hiding under the curved bark pieces in the enclosure, as well as under the rotten wood chunks hidden under the bark. So far the babies have been doing great, here's hoping I'll be able to rear them to adulthood!
And finally, a little update on my Oniscus asellus "Dalmatian". They are doing great, and producing a decent amount of offspring, which still so far have only been "Dalmatian" morph individuals! Plus, the first few offspring they produced are growing pretty fast, won't be long until they reach sexual maturity themselves.
Anyway, here are a few pictures I took of them today:
I am very happy these have been doing well for me, as you may know, I've had some trouble isolating other isopod morphs in the past, so it's a relief that these have been producing offspring that are actually of the "Dalmatian" morph.
Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)
Friday, February 3, 2017
Another Jerusalem Cricket Egg Update
I'm sad to say that most of the eggs from Ripper's first clutch have decomposed and molded over, seems they may have been infertile. :( While there are still some healthy looking eggs from that clutch, I have a suspicion that none of them will hatch.
This is pretty disappointing, was really excited about the prospect of breeding these guys, but things are heading south fast. Will keep you guys posted.
This is pretty disappointing, was really excited about the prospect of breeding these guys, but things are heading south fast. Will keep you guys posted.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
More Jerusalem Cricket Eggs & A Couple Roach Updates
Yesterday I took a look at Ripper's enclosure and saw an egg in the substrate through the side of the container. I thought it may have been an extra egg from her last clutch that I missed, and so I dug it up carefully, and ended up finding six eggs! Today I examined the enclosure more carefully and found another six close to where the others were, so it looks like she laid another clutch of twelve eggs! I'm very excited that she has laid so many eggs already, here's hoping they all hatch!
Will keep you guys posted as to any new developments!
I am very happy to announce the introduction of a new species to my collection, I have acquired five oothecae of the Gisborne Cockroach, Drymaplaneta semivitta! It is a species that has been bred in Japan for a while and has come and gone from the European hobby, cultures can apparently be difficult to maintain over a long period of time, for what reason exactly I don't know. I have no idea if the oothecae will end up hatching or not, as they were in the mail for a week and the weather has been pretty chilly, but I'm really hoping they will!
Anyway, I took some pictures of their enclosure and of the oothecae themselves, here they are!
Now, the oothecae are a bit shriveled and dimpled, which in other species suggests the oothecae are duds, however apparently this is a normal feature of this species' oothecae, according to this site here.
Fingers crossed the oothecae end up hatching, I'll definitely try taking some pictures of the hatchlings if they do!
Lastly, I wanted to give you guys a small update on my Parcoblatta zebra. They are doing pretty well, the nymphs my original adults produced have already matured and are reproducing themselves, so it looks like I'll have a sizable colony before long! :)
Here are some pictures of an adult female:
This species is definitely a pretty one, and I am very glad to have some in my collection!
Anyways, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)
Will keep you guys posted as to any new developments!
I am very happy to announce the introduction of a new species to my collection, I have acquired five oothecae of the Gisborne Cockroach, Drymaplaneta semivitta! It is a species that has been bred in Japan for a while and has come and gone from the European hobby, cultures can apparently be difficult to maintain over a long period of time, for what reason exactly I don't know. I have no idea if the oothecae will end up hatching or not, as they were in the mail for a week and the weather has been pretty chilly, but I'm really hoping they will!
Anyway, I took some pictures of their enclosure and of the oothecae themselves, here they are!
 |
| The enclosure |
 |
| The oothecae |
Now, the oothecae are a bit shriveled and dimpled, which in other species suggests the oothecae are duds, however apparently this is a normal feature of this species' oothecae, according to this site here.
Fingers crossed the oothecae end up hatching, I'll definitely try taking some pictures of the hatchlings if they do!
Lastly, I wanted to give you guys a small update on my Parcoblatta zebra. They are doing pretty well, the nymphs my original adults produced have already matured and are reproducing themselves, so it looks like I'll have a sizable colony before long! :)
Here are some pictures of an adult female:
This species is definitely a pretty one, and I am very glad to have some in my collection!
Anyways, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Jerusalem Cricket Eggs!!!
Last Sunday, I checked on one of my two mated female JCs, Sam, and found a egg on the surface! It seemed rather freshly laid, and I searched the whole enclosure for more, however there were no other eggs, so I assume the female will be laying more soon.
Finding an egg in Sam's enclosure made me check my other mated female's enclosure (Ripper), as well, and boy am I glad I did! Deep down near the bottom of the enclosure, I found 12 eggs close together in the substrate. She probably laid them in a chamber rather than loosely in the substrate, however, since I dumped the substrate from her enclosure into another container while looking for the eggs, I was unable to observe how the eggs were originally laid.
So now I have 13 eggs total, one from Sam and twelve from Ripper, and Sam should lay more soon. I talked with David Weissman, the leading expert on all things Stenopelmatidae, about the eggs, and he mentioned that females likely lay more than one clutch of eggs in their lifetime, so Ripper may lay another clutch of eggs before she dies, which would be great! He also said that since these individuals were collected from Southern California, the eggs should hatch within a month, and the resulting nymphs should take two years to reach maturity.
I have separated all the eggs and put them in their own little containers, they are all buried in moist coconut fiber, hopefully they will hatch and hopefully I can rear the resulting nymphs!
Here are some pictures of Ripper's eggs before I separated them all:
I am very excited about this recent development, and I really hope the eggs end up hatching! Not many people have gotten eggs from Jerusalem crickets, just Smokehound714 on Arachnoboards, David Weissman and myself I'm pretty sure!
Anyways, that's it for this post, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all soon! :)
Finding an egg in Sam's enclosure made me check my other mated female's enclosure (Ripper), as well, and boy am I glad I did! Deep down near the bottom of the enclosure, I found 12 eggs close together in the substrate. She probably laid them in a chamber rather than loosely in the substrate, however, since I dumped the substrate from her enclosure into another container while looking for the eggs, I was unable to observe how the eggs were originally laid.
So now I have 13 eggs total, one from Sam and twelve from Ripper, and Sam should lay more soon. I talked with David Weissman, the leading expert on all things Stenopelmatidae, about the eggs, and he mentioned that females likely lay more than one clutch of eggs in their lifetime, so Ripper may lay another clutch of eggs before she dies, which would be great! He also said that since these individuals were collected from Southern California, the eggs should hatch within a month, and the resulting nymphs should take two years to reach maturity.
I have separated all the eggs and put them in their own little containers, they are all buried in moist coconut fiber, hopefully they will hatch and hopefully I can rear the resulting nymphs!
Here are some pictures of Ripper's eggs before I separated them all:
I am very excited about this recent development, and I really hope the eggs end up hatching! Not many people have gotten eggs from Jerusalem crickets, just Smokehound714 on Arachnoboards, David Weissman and myself I'm pretty sure!
Anyways, that's it for this post, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all soon! :)
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Some Cockroach, Isopod and Jerusalem Cricket Updates
My Arenivaga bolliana have been doing OK, unfortunately I lost one of my males due to dehydration, I have really overestimated how dry of an enclosure Arenivaga need, apparently they like conditions a little more moist than what I've been providing them. I have tweaked the enclosures of all my Arenivaga species and have more moist substrate in the cage, hopefully I will have no more problems when it comes to hydration.
Here are a couple of pictures of my large female:
Hopefully I'll be seeing hatchlings in a few months! :)
It's been a while since I posted about my Balta notulata nymphs, they have been growing quite slowly compared to other Ectobiids I've kept, but they are definitely growing, and they all seem healthy.
Here are some pictures of them:
Can't wait to start seeing adults, some of my nymphs look like they are getting quite close to maturity!
My Corydidarum pygmaea females have yet to produce any nymphs, and I'm getting a little concerned. I have been keeping them at room temperature, (which in my room is usually about 75F), however now that it's starting to get a little chilly I've put a heat cable under their enclosure, I hope that will help induce them to give birth. They almost always have apple available, so lack of fruit is definitely not the culprit, nor is the presence of predatory mites, which Orin McMonigle states can stress them out enough that they'll refuse to give birth.
I changed their cage up today in an attempt to make it feel more natural, and added some bark pieces to the cage to replace the half a toilet paper roll that was their hide before, which they never used. Hopefully they'll like the change of decor, and maybe it'll even get them to give birth!
Here are some pictures of the girls:
I really hope I'll get some babies from them soon, I really love this unique species of cockroach!
My last Panchlora sp. "White" female still seems to be doing good, she has not given birth yet though. The nymphs I have are doing pretty well, and some of them have started molting into the second instar, which is great. They don't seem terribly inclined to burrow, which I find curious, there is a fungus that has taken a hold of the cage that will eventually turn the substrate into one solid mass, however if they start burrowing soon then they should stir the substrate up enough that the fungus will eventually die off, if not I'll have to replace the substrate and sterilize the cage.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the enclosure, which I have not really shown off at all:
As you can see there are a ton of springtails in the cage, (Sinella curviseta), which have done a good job at keeping mold down, (unfortunately they are no good at keeping the yellow fungus which turns the substrate into one solid mat at bay).
The dalmatian Oniscus asellus are doing great, shortly after finding the original three I found a fourth in my regular O.asellus colony, which I put in with the other dalmatians. They have reproduced already, and I think that some of the babies may be dalmatians too! I'll know for certain when they get a little bigger.
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the older individuals:
Beautiful, am I right?! :)
My Porcellio scaber "Pied", have not been doing as well, and by that I mean none of their offspring have shown any white coloration, and some of the individuals that were originally white have lost their special coloration! I only have one pied individual left it seems, hopefully some of the normal looking offspring carry the gene for the pied coloration, otherwise it looks like this color morph will become extinct really soon. :(
Here are a couple pictures of my last pied individual:
Hopefully things change soon, I really like this color morph.
Unfortunately, my male Jerusalem cricket, Jiminy, has died. :( He was only able to mate with two females successfully, I tried mating him with another recently but he was unable to deposit a spermatophore after he almost aligned his genital hooks four times, he seemed to be tired so I let separated them and let him rest, sure enough he died less than a week later.
I assume that getting bit on the back did cause some damage to him, and it probably severely shortened his lifespan. Hopefully I'll be able to get the two females he mated with to lay some eggs.
Rest in peace Jiminy, hopefully your legacy will live on through your offspring, if I can get the females to oviposit that is.
Well that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)
Here are a couple of pictures of my large female:
Hopefully I'll be seeing hatchlings in a few months! :)
It's been a while since I posted about my Balta notulata nymphs, they have been growing quite slowly compared to other Ectobiids I've kept, but they are definitely growing, and they all seem healthy.
Here are some pictures of them:
Can't wait to start seeing adults, some of my nymphs look like they are getting quite close to maturity!
My Corydidarum pygmaea females have yet to produce any nymphs, and I'm getting a little concerned. I have been keeping them at room temperature, (which in my room is usually about 75F), however now that it's starting to get a little chilly I've put a heat cable under their enclosure, I hope that will help induce them to give birth. They almost always have apple available, so lack of fruit is definitely not the culprit, nor is the presence of predatory mites, which Orin McMonigle states can stress them out enough that they'll refuse to give birth.
I changed their cage up today in an attempt to make it feel more natural, and added some bark pieces to the cage to replace the half a toilet paper roll that was their hide before, which they never used. Hopefully they'll like the change of decor, and maybe it'll even get them to give birth!
Here are some pictures of the girls:
 |
| And their new and improved enclosure |
I really hope I'll get some babies from them soon, I really love this unique species of cockroach!
My last Panchlora sp. "White" female still seems to be doing good, she has not given birth yet though. The nymphs I have are doing pretty well, and some of them have started molting into the second instar, which is great. They don't seem terribly inclined to burrow, which I find curious, there is a fungus that has taken a hold of the cage that will eventually turn the substrate into one solid mass, however if they start burrowing soon then they should stir the substrate up enough that the fungus will eventually die off, if not I'll have to replace the substrate and sterilize the cage.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the enclosure, which I have not really shown off at all:
As you can see there are a ton of springtails in the cage, (Sinella curviseta), which have done a good job at keeping mold down, (unfortunately they are no good at keeping the yellow fungus which turns the substrate into one solid mat at bay).
The dalmatian Oniscus asellus are doing great, shortly after finding the original three I found a fourth in my regular O.asellus colony, which I put in with the other dalmatians. They have reproduced already, and I think that some of the babies may be dalmatians too! I'll know for certain when they get a little bigger.
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the older individuals:
Beautiful, am I right?! :)
My Porcellio scaber "Pied", have not been doing as well, and by that I mean none of their offspring have shown any white coloration, and some of the individuals that were originally white have lost their special coloration! I only have one pied individual left it seems, hopefully some of the normal looking offspring carry the gene for the pied coloration, otherwise it looks like this color morph will become extinct really soon. :(
Here are a couple pictures of my last pied individual:
Hopefully things change soon, I really like this color morph.
Unfortunately, my male Jerusalem cricket, Jiminy, has died. :( He was only able to mate with two females successfully, I tried mating him with another recently but he was unable to deposit a spermatophore after he almost aligned his genital hooks four times, he seemed to be tired so I let separated them and let him rest, sure enough he died less than a week later.
I assume that getting bit on the back did cause some damage to him, and it probably severely shortened his lifespan. Hopefully I'll be able to get the two females he mated with to lay some eggs.
Rest in peace Jiminy, hopefully your legacy will live on through your offspring, if I can get the females to oviposit that is.
Well that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Jerusalem Cricket, Polyphaga saussurei & a Couple Centipede Updates
A couple days ago, the 13th to be exact, I put my male Jerusalem cricket, Tiny, in with another female, Sam. Now I had him in an enclosure with her for almost a week a little while back but saw no breeding activity, so just to make sure I put them both in my breeding enclosure to ensure that the male fertilized her. It was a success, and the male was able to leave a spermatophore for the female.
Here are some images of the mating:
Now, according to David Weissman, the leading expert on Stenopelmatidae, part of the spermatophore dries out and sticks to the female for a 3-4 days, serving as both a physical and olfactory barrier against other males that would try to mate with her. However, just 45 minutes after this mating, I checked on the female and saw no spermatophore. It seems that she most likely dislodged the remnants of it when she tried burrowing into the substrate. Luckily it seems that this should not have any impact on her fertility, as when I told David of this he said he suspected my female was definitely fertilized.
Hopefully I will be able to mate my male with my other females and try to get some eggs out of them!
My Polyphaga saussurei have been doing pretty good, not much has changed with them since my last post about them, just wanted to share some more pictures I took of my adult today.
Can't wait for her to start laying some oothecae! :)
My Rhysida sp. "Purple" has been doing pretty good, I have been feeding it fairly often, though not as often as I could be, and it still has not molted. I will be feeding it a little more frequently, as I feel it should have molted in my care by now. It seems to readily accept Parcoblatta americana nymphs and adult males, which I have plenty of.
Here are a few pictures of it:
I am also going to be power feeding my Scolopendra polymorpha, as it has been pretty active on the surface lately and seems relentlessly hungry. No matter how much I feed the sucker I have not noticed any weight gain so far, just today I fed it a large superworm pupa, then when it finished I fed it a superworm pre-pupa, which it eagerly attacked.
Here are some pics of it eating the pre-pupa:
Hopefully I'll start seeing some growth in my centipedes soon!
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)
Here are some images of the mating:
Now, according to David Weissman, the leading expert on Stenopelmatidae, part of the spermatophore dries out and sticks to the female for a 3-4 days, serving as both a physical and olfactory barrier against other males that would try to mate with her. However, just 45 minutes after this mating, I checked on the female and saw no spermatophore. It seems that she most likely dislodged the remnants of it when she tried burrowing into the substrate. Luckily it seems that this should not have any impact on her fertility, as when I told David of this he said he suspected my female was definitely fertilized.
Hopefully I will be able to mate my male with my other females and try to get some eggs out of them!
My Polyphaga saussurei have been doing pretty good, not much has changed with them since my last post about them, just wanted to share some more pictures I took of my adult today.
Can't wait for her to start laying some oothecae! :)
My Rhysida sp. "Purple" has been doing pretty good, I have been feeding it fairly often, though not as often as I could be, and it still has not molted. I will be feeding it a little more frequently, as I feel it should have molted in my care by now. It seems to readily accept Parcoblatta americana nymphs and adult males, which I have plenty of.
Here are a few pictures of it:
I am also going to be power feeding my Scolopendra polymorpha, as it has been pretty active on the surface lately and seems relentlessly hungry. No matter how much I feed the sucker I have not noticed any weight gain so far, just today I fed it a large superworm pupa, then when it finished I fed it a superworm pre-pupa, which it eagerly attacked.
Here are some pics of it eating the pre-pupa:
Hopefully I'll start seeing some growth in my centipedes soon!
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)
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