Got some new species from Gil Wizen today, and I am super psyched about all of them! He's a really great guy, and an amazing photographer, I highly suggest you check out his blog
here. 😊
Got three species total, one is a new, unidentified species of
Panchlora from Ecuador, he collected them last year, apparently they are even more prolific than
P.nivea and just as easy to care for.
I also got
Gyna centurio, a beautiful species of
Gyna that I've been wanting for a while now, which I am very happy to add to my collection!
And last, but certainly not least, I bought a trio of
Pyrophorus noctilucus larvae, a large, beautiful, luminescent species of click beetle that Gil has been culturing and selling for a few years now! I've wanted them so badly ever since he started selling them, and this month I was finally able to scrape up enough money to buy some! 😀
Anyways, let's take a look at the new
Panchlora sp. "Speckled" first. I ordered two sexed pairs, however he sent two females and three males, which was very nice of him! These guys are pretty small compared to the
Panchlora sp. "White", but the females of this species are still a little larger than those of
P.nivea.
The adult males are light green, and the females have a very unusual coloration, a white-ish color with a light green tint to it, both sexes have tiny white speckles all over, and a few small black spots towards the end of the tegmina, similar to
Panchlora sp. "White". Unfortunately it is quite difficult to capture the unusual coloration of the females on camera, my camera makes them look mostly light green or white. The adults also have very nice antennae, red with a black stripe going through it. The nymphs are a dark, chocolate brown color with yellow heads.
I have them housed in a medium sized plastic container with moist coconut fiber as the substrate, and bark slabs and dead leaves as hides. Will be keeping them fairly moist and will feed them dog or cat food, fruits and veggies.
Anyway, here are some pictures of them, these photos really don't do them justice though, and kinda obscure the tiny white speckles on their wings:
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| Males |
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| Female |
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| Male & Female |
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| And their enclosure |
Hopefully this species will do well for me, according to Gil they are very prolific, perhaps more so than
Panchlora nivea, and are rather hardy as well, so I shouldn't have too many problems getting them to reproduce! 🙂
I also ordered a sexed pair of
Gyna centurio nymphs, it is a beautiful species that's been on my wishlist for a while now, and now I finally have some! :)
The nymphs are a dark brown color, with a few orange spots, kinda like
Eublaberus nymphs. The adults are beautiful shades of red, brown and white, and are pretty sexually dimorphic in coloration.
I have them housed in a medium sized plastic container with moist coconut fiber and potting soil as the substrate, with a couple toilet paper rolls as hides and a bunch of dead leaves on top of the substrate for them to hide among and eat. I will also be feeding them dog/cat food, fruits and veggies.
Here are some pictures of the nymphs:
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| Male nymph |
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| Female nymph |
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| Their enclosure |
Can't wait until these two mature, hopefully they'll do well in my care and make lots of nymphs, this is apparently a good species to practice on before tackling the more difficult to breed species in this genus, like
Gyna capucina or
G.bisannulata.
And finally, I ordered a trio of
Pyrophorus noctilucus, a beautiful species of click beetle that has two small patches on it's pronotum that glow brightly in the dark, as well as a spot on the ventral side of it's abdomen. Gil has been culturing these for quite some time, and I am elated to own some myself! (Haha, see what I did there, "Elated"? Elaterid?). I ordered L1/L2 larvae, but Gil gave me ones that were quite a bit older than that, which was very generous of him!
The larvae eat rotten wood like most click beetle larvae, but also require a lot of protein, which can be offered in the form of dog/cat food or live prey like mealworms. The adults are vegetarian though, and eat fruit instead, like apples or bananas, similar to most click beetles.
After hatching, the larvae take about a year to one and a half years to mature, the pupae then take another month to eclose, and the adults live on for another 4-5 months before passing away.
The larvae of this species look quite similar to
Alaus grubs, and are pretty closely related to that genus, however they aren't nearly as picky as
Alaus when it comes to pupation spots, and will pupate in crumbled up rotten wood (and hopefully rotten sawdust), unlike
Alaus, which seem to require a large chunk of wood to create their pupal cells in.
I am keeping mine in small deli cups filled with fermented Traeger sawdust, and small chunks of rotten wood that I collected years ago. I will be keeping them moist, and will be offering dog food every two days, and may offer some live prey once they get larger.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the little beasts:
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| One of their enclosures |
I really, REALLY hope I can successfully rear all three larvae to adulthood, and I really hope that out of these three I'll have at least one male and one female, as I would love to keep breeding this species! Will definitely keep you guys updated on these amazing Elaterids! 😁
Anyways, that's gonna be it for today, I know I said I'd get a package from Kyle this week, however, he has been really busy lately, so he's going to have to wait until next week to send it. However, he said he'd send extras and some surprise species for my patience, so I'm very excited about that! Well, hope you guys enjoyed this post, will see you all soon! 🙂
