New Male Macropanesthia, Mantid Woes, & More

Got some updates, some good, some bad.

Let's jump into a great update though, I have another male Macropanesthia rhinoceros finally! 😍 This male comes through the kindness of my friend Toan Hoang, who just straight up bought me a male from Mo Fauna. HUGE thanks to Toan for that, and props to Mo Fauna for great packing and a beautiful, healthy male. 😁 

Here are some pictures of the chad:

Hopefully he'll get both my females mated, and then hopefully they'll give birth within the next several months. 🤞 

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Now onto a bummer update... SOMEHOW, my female Metallyticus splendidus got herself wedged UNDER one of the thin cork board hides in the breeding enclosure, and damaged herself fatally as a result. Words fail me honestly, none of the males in that same setup met that fate, I'm honestly not sure how the HELL she got in that position in the first place. Either way, f*ck mantids. 🤣 I'm so done keeping Mantodea, I will leave that to others more experienced in that fields, and stick to keeping almost any other invert family. 

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On the trend of bummer updates, my adorable Daihiniini sp. babies all died, and I'm honestly not sure why. They seemed to just refuse most foods, and those they had some interest in (namely prekilled inverts and artificial pollen) they seemingly lost interest in and then wasted away. Very odd, and honestly I'm still not sure if the diet was actually the problem, or if some other factor was causing them to stress and die. But I tried a wide variety of substrates and humidity levels, and nothing seemed to work. Oh well, maybe I'll get to try these another day, though I have no idea what I'd do differently. 

Here are some meh quality phone pics I got of the first instars, before they all kicked the bucket:

Too bad they didn't do well for me, considering the babies were ADORABLE. 😭

I also lost my Ceuthophilus agassizii colony. Seems I always lose them about 4-5 gens into culture, I feel like they may actually need a winter diapause in order to keep them going for longer than that. I guess I'll test this theory out with my next colony, I'll just have to wait until Spring/Summer and collect some some more (I've literally found them in my neighborhood, so this shouldn't be a problem).

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OK, onto more positive news, I FINALLY got babies from my Panesthia angustipennis angustipennis "Sabah, Malaysia - Gold Winged Form"!!! 😁 Took like 8 months, but hopefully after this lengthy initial incubation, future broods will take significantly less time to develop.

I've also been getting Salganea raggei babies over thos past year, don't know if I ever updated the blog about that. But, there it is lol.

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Got some Eucorydia westwoodi weirdness going on... After only 4 months of development, I've started getting new adults. 😳 And the majority of my remaining nymphs are subs or presubs now. This is crazy fast growth, and the adults emerged before I got to put the colony into diapause. SO, I have isolated said early bloomers to their own culture, to see if I can just straight up break the diapause requirement for this species. That would make these even easier to culture and more accessible to a wider audience of breeders, so hopefully it can be done.

In more Eucorydia news, I have started getting E.forceps babies, and more fresh adult pairs as well. 😁 So, the colony is well on it's way to establishing itself, which is great. Another notch in my belt for successful breeding of this genus.

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My Cubaris sp. "Amber" are doing quite well, breeding rather prolifically for me, and my line bred morph project is going... slowly. 😆 I am getting more and more of the very pale striped individuals, but still a lot of normal dark striped ones as well. The end goal is to get very faintly striped individuals breeding true, not sure how long that's gonna take or if it's even possible TBH.

Anyways, here are some pics of a group of them:

Very cute and easy to breed species, they just like a good amount of heat compared to some other spp..

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Lastly, my Eupolyphaga sinensis "White Eye" colony is doing phenomenal. So much so that I really want to get the normal form as well, since I know this species does well for me, and it seems normal E.sinensis are on the brink of dying out of culture here in the US.

Here are a couple pics of some adult females:

Such a cute little species, hopefully they'll become more common in culture as the years go by.

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

Panesthia and Episymploce Adults & Black Flour Beetle Success!

It's finally happened, I have an adult pair of Panesthia angustipennis angustipennis "Sabah, Malaysia - Gold Winged Form"! 😁 The male is the same size, if not larger than my largest P.a.cognata females, whereas the female is even bigger! 😄

Here are some pics of the adult male:

Freshly molted in it's molting chamber

Fully hardened/darkened

Definitely a beautiful form of P.a.angustipennis, hopefully they'll breed well for me! 😊

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In other Panesthiinae news, my Ancaudellia hamifera have been breeding very well for me, and I actually got to see one of the females right after giving birth in a chamber she made up against the sides of the enclosure. She apparently extruded her whole ooth as the nymphs hatched out, and whatever was left served as the first meal for the newborn nymphs, which were all swarmed around it evidently feeding.

Here are the best pictures I could get of this scene:

Neat right? Wish I coulda gotten better pics of the newborns through the plastic, but it's pretty scratched up there near the bottom. 😅

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My Episymploce sundaica nymphs are starting to mature out, and boy do I have a lot of freaking nymphs... 😅 So much so that I've added them to my For Sale list, if anyone's interested, this is the first time they've been offered in the US for years now.

Anyways, main reason I'm bringing them up is that I've finally gotten decent pictures of healthy, young adults, and some nymphs too:

Female carrying ootheca

Male

Nymphs

Much better looking individuals than the one I got photos of last time I posted about these. 😅 It's a nice little species for sure, one I hope will gain a decent foothold here in the US hobby. I can definitely see potential feeder use in them, even though all life stages can climb, they're not really inclined to, and prefer to stay on the ground when at all possible (but can't burrow either).

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Lastly, an update on a beetle y'all probably don't even know I have, Cynaeus angustus, the "Larger Black Flour Beetle". Found a single adult a few months ago just wandering around on the floor in my room, popped it into a deli cup with some fine coconut fiber substrate, and bam, larvae. 😂 Funnily enough, started a colony of this species back in 2017 in exactly the same way, I'm apparently very lucky when it comes to randomly finding gravid adult females of this and other Tenebs.

Anywho, I'm getting a wave of CB adults now, hoping to breed up a nice colony this year and potentially offer this species up, yet another grain pest darkling to add to the roster of potential feeders for herps/inverts. 😄

Here are some pictures I took of one of the new adults:

Neat little species, I think people will like them, much larger than Tribolium, but a lot smaller than Tenebrio, more so in the size range of Alphitobius (but Cynaeus larvae look more like Tenebrio/Tribolium).

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

Eumesosoma Babies!!! (& Panesthia Pics)

Well, I've officially bred Eumesosoma cf. roeweri! 😁 The babies have started hatching out from the first egg clutches, and the adults are STILL laying more eggs BTW. 😅 Will hopefully have dozens upon dozens of these black velvet harvestmen babies soon, that is if they aren't super cannibalistic... Which so far, with ample dog food, fruits and springtails available, they don't seem to be. They hatch out at a whopping 1mm in body length, so like, half the size of Vonones hatchlings. 😂

Here are some pictures of the wee babes:

Many of them are plumping up and will likely molt to second instar soon. Looking forward to watching them grow, and hope to spread them around in the hobby to interested parties soon! 😊

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Just for the heck of it, I took some pictures of a couple of my larger Panesthia angustipennis angustipennis "Sabah, Malaysia - Gold Winged Form" nymphs the other day. The variation in nymph pattering is rather interesting IMO.

Here they are:

What lovely looking nymphs, I really can't wait to see adults in person! 😍

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Also, small updates but notable nonetheless, as of a couple weeks ago, I have babies in my Cariblatta lutea and Neoblattella detersa colonies already. That was pretty fast. 😄

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

Panesthiinae Updates & Eucorydia Pictures

Got a few more random updates and pictures of roaches today. 😄

My Panesthia angustipennis cognata "Cambodia" are doing swimmingly, so many babies now, I really don't understand how these didn't get established in the US hobby way sooner TBH, but hey, I'm glad they're here now! 😁

Here are some pictures of an adult and nymph pair, plus a couple group shots:

Such a pretty species, hopefully they'll catch on in popularity here in the US hobby!

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My Panesthia angustipennis angustipennis "Sabah, Malaysia - Gold Winged Form" are also doing quite well, and are slowly but steadily approaching adulthood, think some of my nymphs are subadults now actually. 😁 Can't wait to see adults in person, and see just how big they get compared to cognata!

Anyways, I just so happened to get a couple somewhat decent pictures of a freshly molted nymph in a molting chamber the other day, something I've never seen before:

Pretty neat to see one of these teneral!

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I recently rehoused my Salganea raggei, and confirmed that I have a total of 7 individuals still alive, all adults. None of them look particularly fat or gravid, so I'm hoping I didn't get unlucky with my sex ratio. 😅 I'm actually fairly confident I've been keeping them much too cool, I didn't realize the spot of my room that I keep them in is consistently in the low 60s, so I've moved them to a larger enclosure in a warmer spot to try and coax some breeding out of them. 

In better news, regarding my Ancaudellia s. serratissima, I believe I only started with 10 or so individuals in the Summer. All of the nymphs sent in that group have matured now, and a couple different broods seem to have been born since then, as I'm now up to 31 individuals total. 😊 So those are doing quite well, should be able to spread them around in the US hobby for the first time ever next year!

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Lastly, my next generation of Eucorydia yasumatsui have reached the subadult stage, and one of the males matured recently. Thought I'd try and get some decent pictures of a young adult male that doesn't have any significant wing defects, as opposed to my original set of images of an adult male last year. 😅

Without further adieu:

Such a pretty species, and honestly, seems like they're kinda underrated in the US hobby. Definitely don't seem to get as much love as they should considering their relative ease of care, and their stunning coloration. 😍

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