Phone Photo Dumps & Updates!

Hybridizing hissers is honestly more complicated than I'd thought... It seems some crosses, while not necessarily impossible, are at the very least quite difficult to do successfully, have a high failure rate, and the resulting offspring may not always be fertile themselves. My first ever intergeneric "tri-brid" offspring were unfortunately sickly and did not survive past L4. This may have been a fluke, as only two offspring were born, seemingly prematurely, but while I'm continuing to attempt to recreate this cross, no new litters have been born. 

I've managed to get a SINGLE offspring by crossing female Princisia vanwaerebeki "Tiger" to male Elliptorhina davidi, which seems to be a healthy individual, but mostly the females have just been aborting their ooths far before developing them fully. 

Attempts to cross Elliptorhina laevigata males to female Gromphadorhina portentosa "Masoala" have consistently ended in failure, as have attempts to cross Gromphadorhina oblongonota males to Aeluropoda insignis females. 

All of this is to say that some crosses definitely seem more viable than others, and the success of the cross might come down to hard to recreate variables, not just in husbandry but also in the size and morphological compatibility of the individuals chosen for crossing.

One cross that seems to work pretty consistently though, is crossing Gromphadorhina portentosa to Princisia vanwaerebeki, and one such project in my collection are these Gromphadorhina portentosa "Masoala" × Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big/Black × Androhamana". The F1 adult males all look pretty much like portentosa in coloration, but have morphology more similar to Princisia (especially the pronotum morphology). The F1 adult females have been more variable in coloration but all have striped abdomens.

I haven't bothered giving this cross a nothospecies name yet, as I don't know whether they're worth keeping or not. I've isolated a couple of the most impressive adults for line breeding, the goal would be to consistently have adults with bright orange abdomens, preferably very stripey on both sexes (though I'll settle for just the females being striped), and males that consistently have that more Princisia-like pronotum morphology. Breeding for size would also be nice, and these seem to consistently throw out majors already at F1, but I'll see if line breeding can have any compounding effect on that.

Here's hoping for some interesting results in the F2 of this cross!

---

I was gifted two species of Pelmatosilpha spp. earlier this year by Alan Jeon... and unfortunately have failed with both.

My Pelmatosilpha sp. "Manati, PR" did well at first, growing quite fast, and I still have several adult males that are healthy and doing well. Unfortunately, all of the females (of which there were far less than males), grew up deformed and sickly, and I ended up with no healthy adult females... so now I've only got males. 😩

Pelmatosilpha sp. "Manati, PR"

It would seem this genus prefers dry hides, and very high air humidity. Unfortunately for the Pelmatosilpha coriacea "Air Bnb, PR" Alan sent me, I kept them quite moist, and the hides I gave them got rather soggy. So only one of those survived longer than a couple weeks, though after correcting the issue it did make it to adulthood, (ironically, a healthy adult female).

Pelmatosilpha coriacea "Air Bnb, PR"

Quite a pretty genus, it's unfortunate that I messed up with the P.coriacea so badly, and TBH I've no idea what happened with the P.sp. "Manati"... Sometimes luck's just not on your side. But I wanted to share the few pics of these spp. that I got anyways.

---

I really thought that my one female Therea petiveriana that has matured thus far, did so AFTER my first adult male died... And I know for a fact no other males have matured since then. However, evidently, she did mature before he kicked the bucket, and just evaded my detection until after he died, because not only did she lay lots of ooths (larger ooths, higher in volume than is normal for unmated female roaches), but a month or so ago, I started finding hatchlings in the enclosure! 

So, I've successfully secured a second generation of these beauties in my collection, and still have some large nymphs from last generation I'm waiting on to mature (hopefully even more in sync than my last two adults). 😄

Awesome news all around for the US hobby regarding Therea, hopefully next year I can make both true T.petiveriana, and T.sp."Pachmarhi" available for the first time here! 😁

---

Earlier this year, I received what was supposed to be a 1.2 group of Anomalipus elephas, a very large and morphologically unique species of darkling beetle from South Africa. Unfortunately though, as is often the case with WC Tenebs, they were misidentified, and actually a mix of two species... 1 male A.elephas, and 2 A.mastodon.

Where A.elephas are a very sexually dimorphic species, with large, gorilla looking males, A.mastodon are not sexually dimorphic, and I've honestly no clue what sex mine are. They are also significantly smaller than at least major male A.elephas, and don't have nearly as dramatic morphology as that species... so I am quite bummed out that I didn't end up with a breeding group of elephas. However, I'll be even more bummed if both my A.mastodon are males as well, so I'm really hoping they're mated females or a sexed pair... 🤞😅

I've got all three housed together in the same enclosure, since they're found sympatrically in the wild, hybridization shouldn't be an issue (and if they're all males after all, it'll be even less of an issue... 🥲). They're in a large,  well ventilated enclosure with a couple inches of substrate, a mix of coco fiber, coco coir chunks, aged sawdust, sand, and leaf litter. I'm keeping two thirds of the enclosure humid, the rest dry (these prefer more humid conditions compared to desert darkling spp.). They're kept at around 75-80F°, and I'm feeding them dog food and fruit slices (they also seem to love eating leaf litter).

A.elephas male

A.mastodon

Unfortunate that I didn't end up with a breeding group of A.elephas, though I'd still be happy to get offspring from the A.mastodon. Their breeding season starts around October, so if either of the mastodon is a female (and being WC, they should be mated and have sperm retained), then I can expect to see eggs being laid around then. This genus is apparently not too picky about oviposition medium, and I think the substrate in their enclosure is pretty optimal for that task, so if I don't find offspring this Fall/Winter, I'll have to assume the mastodon are both males as well... so we shall see.

---

Last, but not least, a Rochaina spp. update! 

Unfortunately, my R.bilunata have contracted a Serratia infection, and are not taking it well at all. I don't even know how they could have contracted it, and it makes me wary of certain pests like grain mites or phorid flies possibly being vectors for that bacteria...

Several nymphs have died before making it to maturity, and several more have matured into quite deformed and unhealthy adults, almost all of which have died within a week or two of maturing. There is one adult female that is holding out and actually does seem healthy (though her wings are quite deformed), and has been alive for several weeks now. However, none of the remaining male nymphs are particularly close to maturity, and there's only one or two female nymphs left. So the odds are not looking favorable at all, and the conditions that would hinder the effects of Serratia (namely dry, low humidity conditions) would kill my remaining R.bilunata faster... 

Thus, I am doomed to stay the course in terms of husbandry, watch them grow and die and just hope that at least ONE healthy female and ONE healthy male mature within each other's adult lifespan, mate and produce ooths... even just one good ooth, and I could secure another generation (and isolate it from the parents in a sterile environment, to prevent the offspring from also contracting Serratia). 

I'll try my best of course, but obviously I am not holding my breath for the R.bilunata...

In more positive news, my R.metae, unhindered by disease, are thriving! The females have been laying oothecae at a pretty good pace, and I am confident I have secured a next generation. 😁 Really looking forward to seeing hatchlings of this species again, hopefully by November/December. 🤞

Female laying an ooth

Really weird looking when they're making their oothecae! Also, I've noticed they do seem to have an upper limit of 12-15 adults per 5 gallons, before they start bullying and killing each other. Not a very communal genus for sure, and seemingly one that does not benefit from the allee effect. 

I've written a caresheet for this genus now, the first of it's kind, and I hope it will prove a valuable resource for those looking into breeding this and related genera. 😁 I also went back and updated a bunch of my older caresheets with new husbandry information I've compiled over the past couple years, as well as nomenclature updates. Wrote up a couple other new sheets as well, and hope to write more soon.

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks everyone for reading, hope y'all enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next post! 😉 

Rochaina Mystery Solved, Some Sad Losses, & New Bugs!

My captive laid Rochaina metae ootheca hatched, and I can now confirm that the nymphs from that WC ooth from the same locality are in fact, R.metae. As the first instars from this captive laid ooth are identical in patterning/morphology to those from the WC one. 

So now I've got around 50 nymphs of this species, which is a great starting group to work with for sure! 😄 I am noticing the nymphs from the first ooth are growing at FAR more staggered rates than R.bilunata, some are still L3, while there are a couple that are already L6! 

L3

L5 (Left) & L3 (Right)

Basically L1 through L5 in the rest of these pics...

There's only been a very small die off of a few nymphs so far, so it seems I've got the care for Rochaina dialed in. But I won't know for sure 'til I get adults. 😉 Hopefully by the end of the year I'll be posting pictures of mature Rochaina!

---

Speaking of Rochaina bilunata, mine have reached L6! Their growth has really slowed down as of late, a couple of stragglers are still L5, though the growth is not nearly as staggered as that of the aforementioned R.metae.

I'm thinking I got 2-3 more instars until they're mature, at this rate I'm expecting adults at the end of Summer/early Fall. 🤞 

---

Unfortunately, it is with a heavy heart that I announce my Hemilepistus pavlovskii have kicked the bucket. 😭 Unfortunately I am not 100% sure what happened, but I'll share my experience with this last generation here so as to hopefully preserve any information that may prove useful in the future for other keepers of this species.

Once my F1s all reached sexual maturity late last year, I noticed they seemed to be killing each other off. This subgenus (Desertellio) is supposedly not AS territorial as subgenus Hemilepistus, however, H.pavlovskii may be an exception, as even after massively upgrading their enclosure size and providing them with a number of suitable hides, they still seemingly killed each other down to a single pair by winter 2025. And just like that, I was back down to a single pair, very reminiscent of my experience with the WC individuals I received in 2024. 

Considering this happened two generations in a row, I've come to the conclusion that this especially large Desertellio species is in fact, nearly as, if not just as territorial as species from subgenus Hemilepistus. 

Anyways, I dug up my last remaining F1 adult female back in late March, and saw she was quite gravid. So, excited about the prospect of F2 babies being born soon, I waited patiently for another month. But the babies never came, and I saw the male had died in a corner of the enclosure. 

After weeks of not seeing the female or any babies surface, I finally tore the enclosure apart May 5th and the female was just gone. 😭 No babies in sight, and I'm assuming her body decomposed to a degree that I was unable to find it.

Now, I'm still not sure exactly what went wrong, there are several variables that could be to blame:

• For starters, I had let them get a little warmer than I did last year, as my bug room has had some more significant heat spikes/fluctuations this Spring.
• Their new, larger bin could have had inadequate ventilation, either too much or too little, as I switched them over to micromesh ventilation, which I'm still new to using and am in the process of figuring out exactly what levels are preferable for what species.
• They might have contracted Rickettsiella, which several of my other pods have over the past year. I think my last big batch of leaf litter was pretty inundated with that bacteria, and I will admit that I did notice some unusual discoloration on my Hemilepistus this generation that could be attributed to that (could also have been dietary changes causing the coloration changes though). While I've been able to pull many species out of Rickettsiella infections, and they typically gain immunity after a generation or two, the territorial nature of this species may have left me with too few individuals (a single pair) to overcome such an infection.
• I also didn't sterilize the clay substrate in their new setup, as opposed to in the past when I sterilized everything. So any number of pests/pathogens could have been introduced that I may not have noticed.

In short, there were several variables that could be in play that weren't last generation, and unfortunately luck was just not on my side. 😭 Whatever the case, I'm quite bummed, as I was literally weeks away from having F2 babies. 😩 Hopefully I'll be able to get my hand on this species again in the future, and equipped with more knowledge, will isolate pairs out as soon as they hit sexual maturity to avoid the territorial killing... and I would also sterilize ANYTHING going into their setups in the future rather than being lazy about it. But for now, this species is officially extinct in the US hobby. 😞

---

Another unfortunate loss has been my cf. Tyrannochelifer sp. "Orange Beach". They persisted for a generation or two but never in good numbers, and while I tried a variety of feeders (springtails, various mites and barklice) they didn't seem to eat anything with zeal. They were also quite picky about their hides, and seemed to want the very thin, flat hides pressed against each other (the the papery underbark layers from some hardwoods). I think they must be specialists on some specific invert prey, and might need a better choice of hides in captivity than what I was offering as well.

---

Last year I got a few Blapstinus dilatatus from Bakersfield, CA. This is a large, broad member of the genus, and are kinda like the western equivalent of B.fortis IMO.

They bred sparingly in their own enclosure I set up for them, and I in fact almost lost them, before dumping the half dozen or so individuals into my Gromphadorhina portentosa "Cleveland Aquarium" enclosure. IDK what it is about hisser enclosures that small darklings like this love so much, bur wouldn't ya know it, they've exploded in number in said enclosure, and are doing well enough for me to offer them up now. 😄

Said hisser enclosure is a well ventilated 5 gallon gasket bin with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with eggcrate hides. I'm keeping a third of the substrate moist, the rest dry, am offering the roaches dog food and fruits (the Blapstinus only seem to really eat the former), and have them at around 80-85F°. 

I wonder if it's the way the substrate compresses in hisser enclosures that these smaller darklings like, or if the roach frass is something the darklings enjoy eating. But whatever the case, I've found a number of species do better in hisser colonies than in their own dedicated enclosures, at least in my experience.

---

Now for an update on my Parahormetica bilobata "Lagoa do Taquaral, Campinas, Brazil"! Most of them are subadults now, but one male actually matured months ago, and boy is he a stunner! 🤩 

Interestingly, this locality seems to have some variation in the nymph coloration. All my nymphs are a dark reddish brown with little in the way of lighter markings. But one of Kyle's nymphs has the brighter coloration you'll often see in pictures of this species' nymphs online, so the coloration seems to be random.

Large nymphs

Adult male

This species is smaller than I had expected, with this male being about the size of a small L.subcincta adult. But that patterning more than makes up for the smaller size, and hopefully this just means I can keep more of them in a 5 gallon bin than I previously thought. 🤣 So excited for the rest to mature, hopefully within the next few months, so they can finally start breeding!

---

Lastly, Kyle sent me some a species of Pseudophyllodromiidae from Black Rock Lodge, Cayo, Belize, a few months ago. These are a brand new introduction to the hobby, and are reminiscent of a beefy Euthlastoblatta or Latiblattella species IMO, though their ID still remains a mystery. They are quite easy to breed, and mine have already produced an abundance of offspring!

I'm keeping them in a moderately ventilated gallon jar, with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks, and eggcrate hides. I'm keeping them humid, at around 75-80F°, and am feeding them dog food and apple slices.

Male

Female

They so far seem quite a hardy species, and pretty large for a Pseudophyllodromiid, a good candidate for a beginner's introduction for this group! Will be interesting to see if/when these get a genus/species ID!

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