My New Arenivaga sp. "Dell City"!

Just received my end of a trade with Blake Rakes, which consisted of about twenty Arenivaga individuals from Dell City TX, (one of which was carrying an oothecae!). This species looks quite similar to my Arenivaga cf. genitalis, but there are some subtle differences between the two, and apparently the adult males look quite different than those of the cf. genitalis stock.

I am keeping them in a round plastic container with coconut fiber as the substrate, and some dead leaves and a small piece of driftwood on top. I will be keeping the lower layers of the substrate moist, and the upper layer dry. Besides the dead leaves, I will also feed them dog food.

Here are some pictures of them:

I really love this genus, and am happy to add yet another species to my collection! Since there are some adult females in there, which are fertile and laying ooths already, I will most likely be seeing tiny nymphs in the enclosure within a few months, let's hope they aren't too difficult to keep!

Anyway, that's gonna be it for this post, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all soon! 🙂

Trade With Roachcrossing!!! (Pt 2, Some Misc. Inverts)

This is the second part of a two part post about my trade with Kyle Kandilian, this one is about the miscellaneous invertebrate species I got from him! If you want to read the first post, click here.

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Let's start off with my new Armadillidium maculatum "Dalmatian"! I traded some of my Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatian" for this beautiful isopod morph, I received three medium sized individuals, and there were some mancae in their shipping container as well. Two of the larger individuals are mostly white with some dark speckles here and there, and the other almost looks normal, but has some white splotches near it's rear.

I have them in a container filled with a layer of moist coconut fiber, with some bark pieces for hides and lots of dead leaves for them to feed on. I will also be feeding them dog food occasionally.

Here are some pictures of them:

Hopefully they will breed and do well in my care, this is my first time keeping this species, would love to acquire the normal morph one day as well! 🙂

Kyle also sent me a free group of Porcellio ornatus "South" as a surprise, since he was a week late with shipping the package out, it's one of the new Spanish species in the hobby, like Porcellio silvestrii. There are several color morphs of this species being kept, this one is mostly grey, but has some yellow spots near the end of it's body, overall it's a nice looking species that I am happy to have in my collection!

I am keeping them in a setup similar to that of my P.silvestrii, since they basically have the same care requirements, an enclosure with dry coconut fiber as the substrate, with one corner being kept moist at all times, with some sphagnum moss in it to retain the moisture. I am using bark pieces as the hides, and have plenty of dead leaves in the enclosure for them to munch on. I will also feed them dog food from time to time.

Anyway, here are some pictures of them:

I am very happy to have another on of the Spanish species in my collection, let's hope they'll breed for me! 😁

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I also got two adult pairs of Embaphion cf. contusum, a really cool little Tenebrionid species, closely related to my E.muricatum. The males have a bit of a mucro, and the females do not, which makes sexing a little easy. They are quite prolific, a few hours after I housed them, I looked at the bottom of their enclosure and found several eggs there! So I should have lots of little larvae soon, hopefully they will be easy to rear!

I have them in a medium sized enclosure with dry coconut fiber as the substrate, with one moist corner. For hides I have a couple of toilet paper rolls, and have some dead leaves on top of the substrate as well. I will be feeding them mostly dog food.

Here are a few pictures I took of them:

I am very excited to have this species in my collection, I really hope they are easy to breed and rear like E.muricatum!

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And lastly, I needed something to feed my excess roaches off to, so I ended up getting a Scolopendra longipes. I gotta tell you, when I opened up the box and saw this thing, I was shocked at just how large it was! I was not expecting this monster of a centipede, it is both longer than my S.polymorpha, and way bulkier!

I am keeping it in a plastic container with about an inch and a half of moist coconut fiber as the substrate, which it loves burrowing into. I will be feeding it roaches and any other invertebrates I have excess of, hopefully it has a good appetite! I tried to offer it some food right after putting it in it's enclosure, it was not interested however, and just wanted to burrow.

Unfortunately, it's tendency to burrow makes it hard to photograph, and if you disturb it too much it freaks out and tries climbing out of it's enclosure, which, with a centipede this large, is quite an unnerving sight...
Anyway, here are the best pictures I could get of it:

I really love how this creature looks, can't wait to see it eat!

Anyway, that's it for this two post series, I hope you guys enjoyed! Will be getting yet another package tomorrow, so I may be putting out another post later tomorrow afternoon, or the day after that. See you all soon! 🙂

Trade With Roachcrossing!!! (Pt. 1, The Roaches)

Yesterday I received my end of a huge trade with Kyle Kandilian from Roachcrossing, was supposed to get it sooner, but Kyle was busy and unable to ship them when I shipped my end of the trade out. He more than made up for it with the freebies and an extra species though, and I am very happy with this transaction!! 😁 Instead of writing one huge post about my new inverts, I'll be dividing it up into two posts, one about my new roach species, and one about my other new invertebrates. This post will be about my new roaches.

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First off, let's start with my new Lucihormetica grossei! I asked for a sexed pair, I assumed he'd send a pair of nymphs, but he surprised me and sent an adult pair! These are pretty bulky, and are really beautiful in person, so happy to be keeping some!

I am housing them in a plastic container filled with a few inches of moist coconut fiber, with some dead leaves on top of the substrate. I will be feeding them dog food, fruits and veggies.

Here are some pictures of them:

Male

Female

I also asked for a pair of Lucihormetica subcincta, and again he surprised me by sending adults instead of nymphs! These guys are really beautiful, love the pale bordering around their abdomen! They are smaller than the grossei, but in my opinion look more attractive than them, (the grossei are still quite beautiful though IMO).

I am keeping these in a setup very similar to my L.grossei, few inches of moist coconut fiber, a few dead leaves on top of the substrate, and will be feeding them the same diet as well.

Here are some pictures of them:

Male

Female

Both of them together

I also took some pictures of the males of both species together, to show just how much bigger the grossei are compared to the subcincta:

I really hope both species do well and reproduce in my care, I am thrilled to finally be keeping members of this genus, they've been on my wish list for quite some time!

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In exchange for a large number of my Rhabdoblatta formosana adults, I received a group of Eurycotis improcera nymphs from Kyle. This species is a recent addition to the hobby, and a beautiful one at that! The adults have pale yellow markings on the wings and pronotum that are somewhat similar to E.opaca, and have a orange margin around the abdomen.

I am keeping them in a medium sized plastic container with coconut fiber as the substrate, with bark pieces and dead leaves for hides. I am attempting to keep the enclosure semi-moist, and will be feeding them dog food and fruits. Fruit is apparently quite an important part of this species' diet, and the nymphs don't do well without it.

Here are some pictures of the little guys:

These guys rarely stay still, which makes it really hard to get clear pictures of them. Can't wait until the nymphs mature, this species is quite stunning as adults!

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Another one of the species I got was a group of Deropeltis sp. "Jinka" nymphs, a cute little species I've wanted for quite some time now, the adult females are very fuzzy and adorable! The nymphs are pretty cute too, and are brown with red markings on the pronotum and thorax, at least as small nymphs.

I am keeping them in an enclosure with semi-dry coconut fiber as the substrate, with bark pieces and dead leaves for hides. I am keeping some areas under the bark pieces moist, and the rest of the enclosure fairly dry, yet I am trying to keep the ambient humidity high, by spraying entire the enclosure lightly. I will be feeding them dog food, fruits and veggies.

Here are some pictures of the little cuties:

Looking forward to breeding this species, really hoping they'll do well for me!

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The other new species I got was the new Panchlora sp. "Costa Rica Yellow" that Kyle added to his site recently, I asked for a pair, but instead he sent a full starter colony of tiny nymphs, and one medium sized one as well, so I'm very happy about that!

I am keeping them in a medium sized plastic container with moist coconut fiber as the substrate, and some bark slabs and dead leaves as hides. Will be feeding them dog food, fruits and veggies.

Here are a couple pictures I took of the biggest nymph:

A nice new addition to my Panchlora collection, can't wait to see the yellow adults in person!

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I also asked for another pair of Arenivaga tonkawa, since I'd be really surprised if my last female is actually laying fertile oothecae, he ended up sending me 6+ nymphs and an ootheca, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to breed them this time around, I'd have to mess up big time to kill them all! 😛 Didn't take any pictures of them since I've done so in the past and I just wanted to get them in their enclosure ASAP, just thought I'd let you guys know I got more.

Anyway, those are all my new cockroach acquisitions, will post about the other invertebrates I got from this trade tomorrow! Hope you guys enjoyed this post, see you all soon!

My New Arenivaga sp!!

Yesterday I received a pair of Arenivaga nymphs from a friend in California who collected them in the Algodones Dunes, unfortunately, it seems like they are both males, (they are quite small and thus hard to sex though, so I could be wrong), so I probably won't be breeding them, but it will still be fun keeping them! 😊

Only two species have been reported from the Algodones Dunes, Arenivaga investigata, a somewhat common and widespread species, and Arenivaga darwini, a very rare and very unique species, probably the Arenivaga I want most in this world. As you can probably tell, I'm really hoping it'll be A.darwini, though I'd still love A.investigata as well. I won't be able to tell which species they are until they get a little bigger.

Hopefully they'll do well in my care, I'm flying blind here since I don't know of anyone who has kept any of the California species, but hopefully they won't be too much harder to keep than the other TX/AZ Arenivaga species I have. 🙂

I'm keeping them in a small plastic container filled with a sand and coconut fiber mixture as the substrate with dead leaves on top, I will be keeping one end dry and the other moist, and will also be feeding them dog food occasionally.

Usually you don't want to keep roaches on sand since it is an abrasive substrate that can actually harm many species over time, even most desert species, however these little nymphs were collected in the Algodones Dunes, and according to Heidi Hopkins, the world expert on Arenivaga, both A.darwini and A.investigata are psammophiles, so I'm going to keep these guys on a sandy substrate. Failure to keep psammophiles in a sandy substrate usually results in a quick death.

Anyway, here are some pictures of them:

Hopefully they'll do well for me, can't wait to see which species they end up being!

That's gonna be it for me today guys, hope you all enjoyed, and will see you soon! 😉

Pasimachus sp. "Arizona" Egg!!

Well, last night while doing maintenance on my Pasimachus sp "Arizona" enclosure, I noticed a large, smooth, white object was stuck to the side of the enclosure, a few millimeters above the substrate. At first I thought it was the entrails of their last meal or something, it was so large, it took me a while to realize it was an egg!

I gently took it off the side, apparently it had gotten stuck in a water droplet or something, so it came off easily. I have placed it in a deli cup with a thin layer of coconut fiber, with any luck it'll hatch within a week or so! It is by far, the largest beetle egg I have ever seen, a true monster of an ova!

Unfortunately I don't know exactly what caused my female to oviposit, it's probably just a seasonal thing, plus I've been feeding them a lot lately. Really hope she ends up laying more eggs, I somehow doubt it though, in both of the only two reports I've found about people getting their Pasimachus to oviposit, they only ever got a single egg out of their females. Don't know why, but that seems to be the norm for Pasimachus in captivity, maybe I'll break that record though, we'll see... 😊

I took a couple pictures of the egg, here it is:

Hopefully it will hatch soon, I expect the larva that comes from this egg will be rather large! Will post as soon as it hatches!

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, may write another post tomorrow about a new addition to my collection, if all goes well I'll be getting a package tomorrow. Hope you all enjoyed this post, will see you all soon! :)