More Exciting Updates!

I have had some degree of success rearing Eusattus muricatus finally. Though to what degree, we'll have to see. At the very least I was successful in rearing the vast majority of the larvae produced from last year's WC adults to a mature size, and while I've isolated a few to their own deli cups for isolated pupation, I left the majority together to attempt some communal pupation... we'll see how that goes.

One of the larvae I isolated did pupate and eclose into a healthy adult recently, so here are a couple pics of it while still teneral:

Hopefully there will be many more adults where this came from, so I can finally get an F2 of this adorable species and maybe make CBB larvae available. 🤞😄

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I had some Nagrurus cristatus hitchhike into my collection with roaches I got from Kyle at Roachcrossing, so naturally I set them up in their own enclosure. Several months later and I now have a robust colony going!

Keeping them in a minimally ventilated enclosure with an inch of coco fiber and sand, topped with bark and leaf litter. Offering them dog food as the supplemental diet, keeping them humid and at around 75-80F°.

Here are a couple pictures of a cluster of 'em:

If anyone's interested in these, I have plenty available now. 😊

EDIT 5/28: I double checked and asked Kyle the species again, apparently they are actually N.nanus, not N.cristatus.

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My cf. Hesperochernes sp. "Livonia, MI" are thriving! They really seem not to be too cannibalistic, and feed well on Oribatids and tropical pink springtails. I really don't think they'd be effective Oribatid control unfortunately, they just don't eat enough ofthem to prove useful I'm afraid.

Anyways, here's a couple pictures of a group of these cuties:

Love these derpy little guys!

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Recently I received a species I've been lusting after, Cubaris sp. "Lemon Blue", from Kyle at Roachcrossing. These are beautifully colored isopods, however it seems their yellow coloration only really pops if their diet is high in beta carotene. So I've been feeding mine color enhancing cichlid pellets, and I gotta say, the results have been pretty good! 😁

I have them housed in a well ventilated gallon shoebox with a thin layer of coco fiber topped with coco coir chunks, sphagnum moss, and leaf litter. They've got cork bark for hides, and as previously mentioned I an feeding them cichlid pellets as their supplemental diet. I'm keeping two thirds of the enclosure humid, the rest dry, and have them at around 85F°.

Here are a few photos of these stunners:

Such a lovely species, and one I'm happy to say is breeding for me! 😊

Well, that does it for this post! Thanks everyone for reading, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see y'all next time! 😉 

3 Years in a Garage, & Other Tenebrionid Updates...

Last week, I was digging around in my garage, looking for an old Ziplock bag of rotten wood I had collected over three years ago, to use in my Pyrophorus enclosures. I found the bag and opened it up, only to find that half of the wood was highly deteriorated, and seemed to have been turned into tiny frass pellets. I was quite confused, until I dug around a bit and found several Tenebrionidae larvae inside!!! 😮

Somehow these things survived in this Ziplock bag full of only rotten wood, in my poorly insulated garage for THREE YEARS!!! That's three hot summers, three freezing winters, conditions I wouldn't think anything except for maybe mites could survive in! That's what I call a hardy species!

They are Alleculinae larvae for sure, and since the wood they were collected in came from the same tree and was collected at the same time as my old Hymenorus sp culture, I'm guessing they are the same species. I will be moving them to a proper container soon with more rotten wood, which I will still keep in the garage during the winter, since the cold may be needed for proper development. Once springtime comes I will bring them indoors, I'm guessing several adults will emerge at around that time.

It was quite a pleasant surprise, I'm glad to be culturing this species once again! Unfortunately, this all means that I have less usable rotten wood than I thought, so I may need to get more...

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Upon request, I'm giving you guys an update on my Edrotes ventricosus! 🙂 So far, nothing has changed, all of my adults are still alive, and they seem to be only eating chick feed. I haven't gotten any eggs from them yet, whether because my setup is wrong, or because they only lay eggs early in the year, I have no clue. No one has successfully bred this species before, so I have no idea what is needed to get females to oviposit.

A friend of mine is working with this species right now, and will be trying to feed them live wild oat grass, (Avena fatua), among other native plants that are commonly found in their wild habitat, so maybe he'll be able to breed them successfully, we will see!

Anyway, here are some pictures of my adults:

Will be sure to post an update on these guys if anything changes!

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So, it looks like only one of my remaining Eusattus muricatus larvae made it to pupation, the other two died. Now I have two adults in total, and it seems like they are both the same sex, as I have not noticed any mating behavior, nor have I found any eggs in their enclosure. So it seems like I've reached a dead end with this cool little darkling beetles species. 😞

Anyway, here are a few pictures I took of one of the adults today:

Will be sure to post an update on these cuties if anything changes, but I highly doubt I'll be getting any offspring from them.

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Many of my Eleodes tribulus larvae have been pupating lately, and my first CB adult just eclosed the other day, it's a male! I find it very satisfying to rear desert Tenebs to adulthood, I'm glad I was able to successfully breed and rear this species, I believe I am the first person to do so! 😊 (Not that these are particularly hard to breed, it's just that there aren't a whole lot of Tenebrionid breeders out there).

Here are a couple pictures of the teneral male:

Hopefully there will be many more adults where this one came from!

Well, that is going to do it for today's post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all next time! 😉

Beetles, Isopods & Centipedes Oh My!

So, after a few years, my Coelocnemis have finally been identified as C.californica by Tenebboy on Bugguide, thanks man! 😁 Sadly, I am now down to a single male, I have had him for almost three years now, he is the longest lived beetle I have ever kept!

Took some pictures of him the other day, here he is:

Really love this species, maybe one day I'll go back to where I collected these ones and try getting some females again, I would really like to successfully breed this species in the future!

In other Tenebrionid related news, I dumped the contents of my Eusattus muricatus enclosure out a little while back, to see if all four of my remaining larvae were still alive, and found that one of them had pupated and eclosed into a perfect adult beetle! I was quite surprised, as not only was I not expecting any of them to make it to adulthood, but I definitely did not expect them to pupate in the same enclosure as each other!

The remaining three larvae were still alive and well, so I removed the adult and placed it in my Coelus ciliatus enclosure temporarily while I wait for the remaining three larvae to pupate, as their current enclosure is much more humid than the adult would probably like.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the cutie!:

Hopefully the other three larvae will pupate and eclose soon, really would love to get another generation from this species going! Would also really like to get pictures of the pupa of this species, so I will be checking on them more often in the hopes of catching one as a pupae before it ecloses.

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My Porcellio ornatus "South" have actually grown a surprising amount since I received them, they haven't got that much bigger, but they are certainly growing faster than I anticipated! I had them housed in a rather small enclosure before, but have now moved them to a larger enclosure with some bark hides, which I'm sure they'll love.

Here are some pictures I took of them recently:

They don't really like staying still, and the flash on my camera makes them look more reddish than they really are, they are more grey than they appear in these pictures. Really can't wait until these are fully grown, hopefully they'll breed well in their new setup!

Unfortunately, one of my Porcellio silvestrii females died of unknown causes, seemingly while molting, so now I'm down to three females total, and five males. 🙁 One of the females is pretty gravid though, and looks ready to pop soon, so that's good. 🙂

Anyway, here are some pictures I took of them:

That last picture shows off the gravid female, if you look closely you can see her abdomen is yellow and distended quite a bit, a sure sign of a gravid isopod, hopefully I'll be seeing mancae in the enclosure soon!

And lastly for isopod related news, just wanted to report that my Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatian" culture is doing great! (The new morph name was suggested to me by Laura Mae Riepl). I rehoused them to a larger enclosure recently since they had outgrown the little deli cup I had them in before. They are definitely breeding true, I am so thrilled that this morph can be isolated, and that my culture is breeding well!

Here are some pictures I took of them the other day:

Can't wait until this colony gets as big as my other Oniscus culture, it will be quite the sight! 😊

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My Scolopendra longipes is doing great, so far it's eaten a superworm pupae and two adult male Hemiblabera tenebricosa! I haven't actually seen it eat anything yet, as it usually does so in the dead of night, all I find are the remains of it's prey. It's gotten even more thick now, and still spends most of it's time underground, so getting pictures is no easy feat.

For example, the other day I went to get some pictures of it, so I dug it up, and it promptly clambered out of the enclosure and ran under my bed, took me a few minutes to recapture it, all the while my mom and sisters were watching in horror... needless to say, I don't think I'll be digging it up anymore!

Here is the one decent picture I was able to snap of it, unfortunately with it's head in the ground:

Such a big and beautiful specimen, I am in love with it! 😁

Anyway, that's gonna be it for this toady, I hope you guys enjoyed, will see you all next post! 🙂

Embaphion, Eusattus and Paranauphoeta Updates!

My Embaphion muricatum are doing well, I was able to rear most of the larva I bought into adults, and now the larva that my adults produced are already ready to pupate! This species has a pretty fast development rate, almost comparable to the growth rates of Tenebrio molitor!

Here are some pictures of the adults:

This is such a neat species of darkling beetle, and very easy to rear. Hopefully this species will continue to do well in my care! :)

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On the other end of the spectrum, my Eusattus muricatus larva have not been doing all that great, apparently this species has a poor larval survival rate in captivity, the amount of larva in the cage compared to the amount of eggs laid is disappointingly small.

Still, the larva that are alive seem to be healthy, and they are already quite large, a little over two times as long as the adults. They may be close to pupating, I will let them be for a few more weeks and then try to isolate a few of the larva for pupation.

Here are some pictures of a large larva:

I really hope there will be enough larva to create a few adult pairs, already the number of larva alive seems to be less than the number of adults I started with, which is not a good sign.

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My female Paranauphoeta discoidalis seems to have died , as I could not find her anywhere in the enclosure. However, she left me with 20 beautiful nymphs, which is more than enough to sustain the population!

Here are some pictures of the cuties:

They are growing much faster than I suspected they would, which is a pleasant surprise. This species is really pretty throughout it's whole lifespan, and I am very happy to have some in my collection!

Anyway, that's all for this post, hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! :)