June's Failures...

Been a while since I wrote up a long list of failures post... But failures are just part of the hobby, so gotta disclose them so others might learn from my mistakes (or at least be equally confused as I am as to why I no longer have a certain species).

First off, perhaps the most depressing IMO, both my Archiblatta hoeveni ooths failed to hatch and rotted... 😭 I believe these ooths were produced from F2 adults, and apparently that's been the generation that gives breeders the most trouble... Though I'd honestly thought it was just hyperbole, since failure past F2 without adding new bloodlines would instantly point to inbreeding, which is never really an issue with roaches (and still shouldn't be with this species IMO), so I'm not really sure what to make of it...

I kept both ooths consistently humid, warm, and well ventilated. Both ooths reached the 2 month mark just fine, but shortly afterwards their hatching seams burst open from one little spot (1.5 weeks apart from each other I believe), and that is basically a death sentence since all sorts of fungi and bacteria enter the seam and kill/consume all the eggs inside after that.

So yeah, not really sure what happened, but apparently it's not a good idea to start colonies of this species from only ooths, as even WC/F1 female Archiblattini apparently make a decent amount of dud ooths from what I've heard... 😟 Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to try with this beautiful species again one day...

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Now for some sad springtail news... Sadly my Willowsia nigromaculata and Entomobrya multifasciata colonies have completely died out and been overwhelmed by my Willowsia sp. "Kota Kinabalu"...

My Isotoma viridis also got infested with Willowsia, but I'll be setting up new cultures of those to attempt to fix that, and in any case they seem to be fighting against the Willowsia better than some of my other springtails 

Lastly my Tomocerus minor and Orchesella cincta cultures have all but completely crashed, and I'm not 100% sure why, seems like predatory mites are the main reason to blame though. I've also given those fresh new containers, so hopefully they'll take off again, but I remain pessimistic about their revival.

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Onto some sad isopod news... Both my Porcellio expansus and P.bolivari cultures just completely failed to take off. I'm still not sure why that is, since I kept them all quite well ventilated, and I'm pretty sure their humidity levels were correct as well... Maybe kept them a bit too dry considering how low the air humidity is here, but again, I'm not sure. In any case, all the females of both species just up and died on me, (often while gravid). The weirdest thing is, they're the only two Spanish Porcellio giving me issues right now... All my others are doing fine and have bred. So yeah, bit confused as to what happened here with these two species...

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Next up, my Schizillus sp. "Oak Hills". My adults keep producing eggs, and I think both are females... However said eggs have been consistently failing to hatch, and I'm afraid both females may have been young, and collected too early in the Spring, and are both virgins... 🙃 I can think of no other reason why the eggs would fail to hatch, I've tried keeping them dry, semi-humid, humid, hot, room temps, on pure sand, on sand mixed with clay, etc... Just won't hatch. Whereas I've had no issue getting my other, for sure fertile Cryptoglossini eggs to hatch. So these might be a dead end in terms of breeding.

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Now, for a very bittersweet (but mostly bitter) Eucorydia linglong update... So, first off, let's go back to late April. Both of my Eucorydia linglong pairs had finally matured, however for some reason, one of the females died within a couple days of maturing. She never actually fully hardened up, so it would appear this was a random fluke, perhaps some genetic defect unrelated to husbandry, and she just kicked the bucket as a result.

But oh well, I still had one healthy female and two males, should be no problem right? WRONG. For the first month or so I basically kept them at room temps, because they come from temperate China, and I was afraid keeping them too warm would kill them. HOWEVER, as I'm learning now, unless we're talking about specifically montane environments in northern temperate China, Spring/Summer is hot as heck in much of temperate China. So while yes, giving these Eucorydia a diapause was a good idea and probably necessary, I was supposed to be keeping them pretty warm as soon as they were out of diapause. I did not do this though, and so as a result my adults spent most of their lives quite cool, and my female seemingly did not produce a SINGLE ooth that entire time. 🙃😭

I realized my mistake when my adults were looking a bit old, and I rehoused them and found absolutely no ooths in their substrate. 😰 So, afterwards I kept them quite warm, however the female was already old and past her reproductive prime, and I'm pretty sure she only laid one, maybe two ooths before dying of old age. 

On the plus side, I did find hatchlings in their enclosure last week... So yay, babies. But also if my suspicions are correct, there's probably only 6-8 babies in there at most... Which is pretty sad considering a single female should produce at least a couple dozen offspring. 😢 So, I'll actually probably have to get some more from my friend who sent me my first two pairs, just to bulk up my current "colony" and ensure I can continue to breed them. Now that I've realized my mistake I'm confident I can do better with this species, but yeah I messed up pretty bad this first try, and this species won't truly be established in the US hobby outside of my collection for at least a year or more.

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Lastly, unfortunately both the Temnoscheila cf. acuta and Ampedus rubricollis Kyle sent me appear to be either males or unmated females... No offspring have been produced by either and likely never will... Sucks since both are such pretty beetles, but alas, better luck next time.

Well, that does it for this post, hopefully some of you found this all at least a bit informative. Thanks for reading, stay safe, stay buggy, and I'll see everyone next time! 😉

Arboreal, Antisocial, Archiblatta!!!

Martin's Spring Gift Series Pt. 2/4

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Archiblatta hoeveni is perhaps one of the most sought after roach species in the world. They've entered culture many times, in Asia, Europe, and even the US recently... But people have had quite a bit of trouble getting them to last more than three generations. This does not appear to be due to inbreeding, despite some rumors, but rather incorrect husbandry, and lapses in care, both of which this species is incredibly sensitive to.

These are far different in terms of care and setup compared to what most Blatticulturists are used to, additionally, if you don't start with healthy individuals, your chances of getting a colony established are slim to none. 

Thanks to Martin, I now have two oothecae of this species (perhaps F3 ooths?). I believe I am one of only two people with this species here in the US, I hope to succeed in breeding them over multiple generations, and with any luck will help establish them in the US hobby once and for all! 😁 I will share with you all my future experience in rearing this species, as well as the information I've gathered on rearing this incredibly unique Blattid!

According to my research, this species seems to spend much of it's time up in trees during the day, coming down at night to forage for food and deposit their oothecae. They also can't seem to molt properly from the ground, they need a rough, vertical surface to molt from correctly. Additionally, they spend much of their time alone in the wild, particularly as they get older. Other than young nymphs, this species is almost never found in groups, though they are sometimes found rarely in pairs. 

This means a large enclosure with lots of large vertical bark pieces, (and maybe some branches) is needed, and the population density must be kept relatively low compared to other roaches, or else there will be cannibalism, random die offs, and lots of mis-molts...

They come from very humid, tropical areas, and thus like it warm and very humid. Humidity levels must remain consistent for optimum survival rates of nymphs and oothecae. The amount of ventilation offered should be probably be moderate to high, for while they do like very high ambient humidity, they are large animals, and you don't want to suffocate them.

Diet wise, while there are many rumors that they are strict fungivores, or at least absolutely need mushrooms in their diet in some capacity, this does not appear to be true. While they will happily munch on various mushrooms, with oyster mushrooms apparently being their favorite shrooms, according to my surveys of other breeders' experiences, they'll eat just about everything, often with just as much vigor as they do mushrooms. 

The confusion is likely due to the fact that Archiblatta have pretty small appetites for their size. Thus, it can be hard to notice them feeding on anything until you have a whole bunch of them... Except for mushrooms, because mushrooms are mostly air by volume, so when they do eat mushrooms, it often looks like they're ingesting a lot more food mass than they actually are, which has likely lead to the rumor that they are fungivores, when in fact they appear to be general scavengers.

A varied diet is still suggested, but they'll eat pretty much anything, grain based foods, animal based foods, fruits, veggies, fungi, pollen, nectar, probably some leaf litter, etc., they aren't too picky. 

In my opinion, most colony crashes are probably due to overpopulation, lack of suitable vertical hides, and lapses in care causing the enclosures to dry out or the roaches to go too long without food. They're also probably quite sensitive to filth buildups, (and cleaner crews), so the substrate will probably need to be changed every now and then. 

So, now that we've gotten the primary husbandry information out of the way, let's get to my ooth setup! 😄 I've got them both housed in a well ventilated deli cup with a layer of coconut fiber as the substrate, which I'm keep very moist. They're being kept at around 80F°, and will hopefully hatch in around two months if all goes well.

Here are some pictures of these giant ooths:

Such large ooths, which is to be expected from a species as large as these. It appears shriveling is an unavoidable and natural occurrence in Archiblattini oothecae, and in fact while this one looks quite dented in, the dents stop where the eggs actually are... There's a LOT of extra space around the eggs when initially laid, which seems to be filled with a foamy liquid of some sort. I think the eggs must absorb it or something, or it acts as a buffer against dehydration.

What an amazing species of cockroach, can't wait until they start hatching out, I'm SO ready to see this species finally established in mainstream, captive culture here in the US! It's been an iconic species in Blatticulture for soooo long, really hoping we can get them well established via captive breeding and stop having to collect so many WC specimens for the pet trade.

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this LONG post everyone, hope I didn't bore y'all too much with the walls of text, just kinda vomiting all the knowledge I've accumulated on this species over the past few years, as it can be hard to find said information all in one place online. 😅 Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉