Salganea Checkup & Asbolus Eggs!

Well, I did a little checkup on my Salganea taiwanensis taiwanensis, and was actually able to get pics this time! 😄 However I found only 4 surviving nymphs from last brood, when previously I had seen at least 6 nymphs in there. So while said nymphs are all subadults and pre-subs now, it seems there has been some slight die off for whatever reason, which has me concerned. However, all 5 adults are still alive, and there is another new brood of small nymphs in there, 5 to be exact. 

Here are some pics of the group:

So, while it seems like I have a stable colony ATM, it's gonna be a slow growing one for sure. At least the nymphs grow rather fast, subadults in around 6 months. 

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Also, I am happy to report that I am already finding eggs from my Asbolus mexicanus mexicanus! Not only that, but the eggs are huge in comparison to most Teneb eggs I've seen, at least 3-4 mms long! The females must not lay that many eggs as a result, I feel like they can't fit that many inside of them in a single breeding season. 

I have isolated 2 eggs so far into deli cups filled with sand, with a horizontal humidity gradient, with the eggs placed in between the dry and humid substrate. Unfortunately while I did find a third egg, I accidentally smashed it, apparently they are quite fragile. I also have noticed a lot of mating, something I've not seen a lot of with Asbolus or Cryptoglossa previously, so hopefully that means I will be getting a decent amount of eggs from these!

Here are some pics of one of the eggs:

Will be sure to update you all once they start hatching out, I look forward to seeing the differences between the larvae of this species and of Cryptoglossa! 

Also, I have recently noticed that my Asbolus laevis are showing signs of mating too, I've not seen any actually hookups, but I have seen some probable males tapping the backs of other individuals with their antennae in an interested manner. So hopefully I get some offspring from those too!

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Beetles From Beast Pets!!!

Well, I've started yet another darkling beetle breeding project, this time featuring an uncommon species of death feigning beetle that I've seldom seen in the hobby, and never seen in person! 😁 Big thanks to Shawn Kramer of Beast Pets for sending me these beauties, be sure to check his pet shop out if you live in or near the San Diego area in California!

Let's start this post off with the species he sent me that I've never kept before, Asbolus mexicanus mexicanus! This species is uncommon in culture, and this is one of two subspecies found in the US, with Bugguide listing two subspecies in the US; A.m.angularis in CA-AZ & Baja, A.m.mexicanus in NM-TX & adjacent Mexico. Shawn says these were collected in TX, which makes them A.m.mexicanus. My friend Alan Jeon has kept this species before and even accidentally got larvae from them, though he ended up with just two larva due to cannibalism. But the point remains that they seem to be just as easy to breed as any other Cryptoglossini species, so I figured I'd try it out!

I have my adults in a well ventilated container filled with a sand substrate, with the tiniest bit of coconut fiber and crushed leaf litter mixed in. For hides I am using cardboard rolls and driftwood. I'll be keeping them at around 75F, and will keep a third of the substrate moist, the rest bone dry. Their staple diet will be dog food.

Here are some pics of this uncommonly sighted or kept species:

I love the morphology and long legs on this species, really neat! Their exoskeleton texture is pretty matte, and their legs are both heavily pitted and the tarsi are covered in hairs. Quite a bit of clay or mud or something is stuck to their legs currently, but hopefully after a while on a sand substrate they will get cleaned up.

I hope I get some offspring from them this year, fingers crossed it's not too late in the breeding season. If it is though I should hopefully be able to coax some offspring from them in the spring after a mild diapause.

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Shawn also sent me a few Asbolus laevis in the hopes of breeding those too. I have gotten no offspring from mine so far, and I suspect my remaining three are males sadly. So it was nice of Shawn to send me some more adults, which I've tossed in with the others, fingers crossed I get offspring now!

Here are some pics of them, just because:

Interestingly these ones are all smaller than the ones I got from Bugsincyberspace last year, and have a slightly different shape to them too, their elytra and abdomens taper off weirdly... Perhaps different locales have different morphology.

Fingers crossed I now get some offspring from these, @loganlovesbugs on Instagram has bred them, and she seems to have been keeping them the usual way people keep and breed Cryptoglossini. So they can definitely be bred, I just think I either previously got unlucky with my sex ratio, or haven't been keeping them warm enough (something I'm fixing now).

Well, that's gonna do it for today, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉

Bummer Beetle Updates

Let's start off with my Carabus nemoralis... Unfortunately, the one larva I found died shortly after I isolated it, I'm not 100% sure why, but I think pre-killed mealworms may not be an adequate food source for larvae of this species, they may actually need caterpillars. 😟 Either that, or it needed a winter diapause or something, IDK. 

Additionally, both my WC adults have hunkered down and appear to hibernating, with no signs of interest in food or in making more offspring. Honestly, I'm just not feeling it anymore with this species, after failing so bad with the few offspring I got, and me and Carabids don't go together so well historically... So I think I'm just gonna release the adults back where I found them, they'll probably be better off that way. 

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Secondly, sadly my female Nyctoporis carinata has passed away, and I didn't get any larvae from her... 😔 I only saw her lay a single egg, on top of the substrate in the driest part of the enclosure, and when I tried to move said egg to the moist area of the enclosure (since even desert Teneb eggs can rarely tolerate bone dry conditions for long, though coniontises tells me Nyctoporis are an exception), it essentially disintegrated to the touch. I think she was near the end of her life cycle by the time she was sent to me, and laid most of the eggs she had left in her in the care of coniontises.

Oh well, was interesting finally seeing an adult of this species in person nonetheless, sucks that I wasn't able to get any offspring from her, but I don't think there was much I could have done TBH. Was a neat little project nonetheless, and I appreciate that coniontises sent her to me in the first place. 😄

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Lastly, the first of my Cerenopus concolor adults has died, and a couple others have lost tarsi. I guess I got unlucky and got some older adults, either that, or the adults of this species just don't live that long. Or I guess my husbandry could be incorrect, but I don't know what I'd be doing wrong that would kill these adults prematurely. 🤔 

So far no signs of reproduction from these, which I kinda expected, I don't think any of the WC Tenebs I got after Summer are going to reproduce until Spring, that's kind of the norm I think. Even my CB Conibius and Blapstinus stopped breeding in late Fall. Once Spring hits, whatever Tenebs I've still got by then should start breeding again, really hoping the rest of my Ceronopus, my Asbolus, Iphthiminus, and Trogloderus make it until then.

Not the happiest post, but you know I gotta make these, can't have the good updates without the bad, they go hand in hand in this hobby. 🤷‍♂️ Anyways, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time.

New Oddball Tenebs From BIC!

Now, while the Macropanesthia were definitely the most exciting species I just got from Peter of Bugsincyberspace, thanks to winning some store credit via the contests on his YouTube channel, I was also able to get a few awesome Tenebrionid species, which I'll be showing off in today's post! 😁

First off, let's start with the oddest of allest, Ceronopus concolor! This species is pretty unique looking, and I've never ever seen them available in the hobby before, nor do I think anyone's bred them before! So obviously I thought I'd give it a try. 😜 Peter sent me five individuals, when I'd only asked for a couple, so hopefully I've definitely got at least one pair in this group!

This odd, medium sized darkling beetle is surprisingly in the subfamily Tenebrioninae, which I find strange, since most of the really weird looking Teneb genera in the US are in the subfamily Pimeliinae, (at least, the ones I consider weird looking). Hopefully though this means this species won't actually be all that hard to breed, as I've had much better luck overall with a wider variety of genera in the subfamily Tenebrioninae than those in Pimellinae, which often have husbandry needs just as weird as their looks... 😅

I'm keeping them in a well ventilated enclosure with a sand based substrate, with one third of the enclosure kept moist, the rest bone dry. I'll be feeding them chick feed and probably the occasional apple slice. With any luck they'll lay eggs in this setup, and then we can see how hard it is to rear the larvae, what they look like, etc. 😁

Here are some pictures of them:

Really hoping I've got at least one female, guess we'll find out soon enough! 😅

I'll be sure to keep you all posted on this little project, I could be the first to breed this species, we'll see!

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Speaking of potentially being the first to breed a species, I figured I'd try another species seemingly no one's ever successfully bred, or at least tried seriously to breed, Asbolus laevis, the smooth black death feigning beetle! This species is less commonly available than it's popular relative A.verrucosus, the blue death feigning beetle, and thus they are less commonly kept, but I think breeding them should be very similar to breeding the BDFBs.

I asked for a pair of them, but Peter was kind enough to send two suspected pairs, to help ensure I had a chance of breeding them! 😁 I have them set up in a well ventilated container with an inch or so of sand as the substrate, and I'm keeping one half of the enclosure moist, the rest dry. They have cardboard tubes for hides, and I'll be feeding them chick feed and possibly pre-killed Eleodes larvae, (Asbolus LOVE to eat other invertebrates, usually dead or dying ones, and offering them that type of food may help with breeding and rearing the larvae up).

Here are some pictures of them:

Hope they lay some eggs here soon, Asbolus larvae are unfortunately quite cannibalistic, and thus once they start hatching I will have to separate them, and I'll probably offer them live Eleodes larvae to feed on when they're big enough to take prey down...

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Lastly, Peter sent me several individuals of a neat little Tenebrionid genus, Trogloderus! 😁 This is an obscure little genus, somewhat rarely sighted or kept, and in fact the immature stages have never been documented! 

I've kept two adults of this genus before, a smaller, less impressive Idaho native species, but alas, I believe they were both males, and I never got any offspring. This species I just got from Peter I think was collected in CA, but I could be wrong... In any case, it's a very impressive, if diminutive looking Tenebrionid! 

I have my four set up in a small, well ventilated enclosure with a sand substrate, I'll keep a third or so of it moist, the rest bone dry. I have cardboard tubs in there for hides. I'll offer chick feed and maybe the occasional fruit slice as foods, as well as leaf litter for any potential larvae. 

Here are some pictures of these interesting little beetles! 

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, stay distanced, and I'll see you all next time! 😉