Stenopelmatus and a Couple Click Beetle Updates

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.

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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!

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! :)

Captive Bred Ampedus Larva (Yes, Another Click Beetle Post).

In the summer of 2014, I found some freshly cut pine logs in a campground. There were Alaus melanops adults on it, as well as a few Ampedus apicatus and a TON of reddish-brown Ampedus sp. I caught a dozen of the reddish Ampedus, and put them in my mixed click beetle cage. They all died after a few weeks, and a month or so later I noticed some tiny tunnels in the substrate, apparently from the larva of this species.

After that I went through periods of forgetting that the cage even existed, and the substrate would dry out completely sometimes in between waterings. The larva did not seem to mind it at all, these guys can take a lot of neglect. However, I had put some Aeolus sp adults in the cage, and their vicious offspring ate each other along with lots of my Ampedus larva.

So, after well over a year of bad care, I have dug through the substrate and found the remaining four larva and moved them to their own little containers. I will be checking on them more frequently and will be feeding them more protein than before. Hopefully four is enough to start a colony.

I am using my homemade rotten wood (see last post), and some dead leaves as the substrate and food, and will be giving them small pieces of cat food every now and again.

Here are some pictures of the largest larva:

Ampedus sp larva

Hopefully I can successfully rear these to adulthood, I would love to keep breeding this species, and to get some pictures of the adults. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this post, next time I will try to post about something not related to click beetles, lol! :)
P.S: The unidentified click beetle larva in my last post was identified as a Melanotus cf. castanipes.