The Elusive Apsena

Unbeknownst to many of you, I've actually been keeping a small Tenebrionid species for the past month or so, and I figured I'd make a blog post on them, as they are poorly studied little things, and among the prettiest of the micro desert Tenebs in the USA. 🙂

So we recently moved to a new housing development, close to other areas I've lived here in ID, and towards the end of winter, I started seeing these dead Tenebs popping up in the house. Now I've lived in southwest Idaho for years, and have extensively explored the surrounding area looking for new Tenebrionid species, and I'd like to think I know most of the Teneb fauna in the area. However, I had never seen this particular species before, and decided to collect some of the bodies and try to ID them myself.
Turns out, they are an Apsena species, which isn't a genus I've encountered before! I don't know if their larvae or pupae have been formally described before, (something tells me they haven't), and I've never seen anyone breeding this genus before, so I figured I'd keep a few if I could find any live ones, and photograph some of their developmental stages, for science. 😛

I ended up finding a few live adults, and placed them in a small, well ventilated enclosure with about a CM of coconut fiber. I'm keeping less than one third of the enclosure moist, and the rest bone dry. They have eggcrate pieces for hides, and have both cotton springtails and some stowaway Dermestid beetles (Anthrenus sp.), for cleaner crews. (Oddly enough, this is the first time Dermestid beetles have done even remotely well for me, I have no idea why these ones are thriving in the Apsena enclosure, hopefully they won't pose a threat to them, or get into my roach enclosures...).

I'm feeding them mostly chick feed, might offer some veggies or leaf litter later on, but they seem to be loving the chick feed right now. Room temperature seems to suit them fine.

With minimal effort, they've been thriving and have laid dozens of eggs, which are about 1-2 mm long, white, and easy to see through the bottom of the enclosure. The eggs seem to take about 1-2 weeks to hatch, and the resulting larvae are tiny! Pretty sure I'm the first person to ever breed this genus, and I'm almost certain I'm the only one who's photographed the larvae. 😁

Anyways, here are some pictures of them! First, one of the pretty adults:

Now the larvae, first picture is of an L1, the others are of later instars:

Overall they've proven very easy to breed so far, and the larvae are growing quickly! Fingers crossed they pupate easily, and I can snag some pics of the pupae and teneral adults!

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

Call It a Comeback! (Pt. 2)

Well ladies and gents, time to address the other new roach species I got from "Santa Roach" last week! I am excited to introduce the highly coveted, and slightly infamous, Gyna capucina! 😃 These beauties are known as the "Pink roach" in the hobby, due to the pinkish coloration of the adults, (kinda comes out more of a orange-pink in photos though).
They are one of the "Holy Grail" species in the US, due to their beautiful adult coloration and rareness, however they have proven to be a challenging species to breed over multiple generations. There are many theories floating around as to why that may be, some say specific fruits like peaches are needed in their diet, others insist that a chunky, coarse substrate is key to the health of the colony. However, after talking with people who have successfully bred this species in decent quantities for more than a couple generations, it seems like they may just need to be kept drier than most people would think for good reproduction.

I received about 10 individuals, ranging from nearly newborn nymphs, to half grown nymphs, and even one mature male! Apparently females take quite a bit longer to mature than males, so I'm hoping this mix will ensure I'll have at least one male and female mature at the same time, I'd really like to get at least a few babies from these cuties, especially since they can be rather difficult to source...

Anyways, I've put mine in a 2 gallon Tupperware, with a lot of ventilation, and a substrate mix of coconut fiber, Zilla jungle mix, and some rotten oak wood, about an inch deep. On top of the substrate is a layer of decaying oak leaves, and I've placed some vertically slanted bark slabs in the enclosure for the adults to climb and rest on if need be. I've also made and glued a little corkboard hide to the lid of the enclosure, which has already been used by my adult male.
Apparently the adults of this species appreciate a bit of height to their enclosures, (particularly the males), unfortunately the enclosure I gave mine is a bit shallow, but it was the best I could do for now, and should be more than adequate for this first generation, (my G.lurida, caffrorum and centurio bred in similar enclosures, so these capucina should be OK too). If/when they breed, I'll be sure to move the offspring to a five gallon tub like what my Bantua are in, which will give the following generation of adults all the height they could want.

I'm keeping one corner of the enclosure moist, and the rest of the substrate bone dry. Apparently this is just how they like it, and most of the people I know of who have had great success breeding this species are keeping them with similar humidity levels. Seeing as this is a South African species, I shouldn't be too surprised. I'm keeping them pretty warm as well, via a heat cable under part of the enclosure.
I'll be feeding them chick feed, fresh fruits and veggies, (no peaches though!), and the nymphs will also nibble on decaying leaf litter, and possibly rotten hardwood as well. Apparently they have big appetites compared to other Gyna, so I must keep an eye on them and make sure they always have food available. As for cleaner crews, I'm using the same mix of red orabatid mites, booklice, and cotton springtails that my Bantua sp. "Namibia" have, seeing as they are dry hardy cleaners.

Unfortunately, the substrate Seb shipped the Gyna in had grain mites and some isopod mancae in it, which have now been introduced to the Gyna enclosure. However, seeing as most of the enclosure is being kept bone dry, with a single moist corner and LOTS of ventilation, and there are more dry hardy cleaners already in the enclosure, I can't imagine either the grain mites or isopods breeding well or reaching plague populations in this setup, and I'm hoping the cleaners will virtually wipe them out over time, (same goes for the grain mites that were introduced to my Bantua enclosure via the leaf litter they were shipped in, don't why I added it to their enclosure in the first place...).

Now, here are some pictures of the beauties! 😁 First, one of the nymphs:

Now the adult male: 😍

Lastly, their current enclosure and the special hide on the lid I made:

Hopefully they do well in this setup, apparently it's the second generation that normally fails on people if they aren't keeping them right, the adults just stop breeding for some reason. I'll be sure to update you on any important developments, would be amazing to get some babies from this rarely kept species! 😊

Anyway, that's gonna do it for this post, hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading, I'll see ya'll soon! 😉

Call It a Comeback! (Pt. 1)

I'm baaaaaack! 😁 Well, on a trial basis that is... I've been working to better control my anxiety disorder the past few months, and think it's time I try to get back on the saddle and see if I can keep roaches again. This may be a short lived attempt, we'll see, but for now let's just enjoy the two roach species I've decided to work with! 😄 (I've actually been keeping a small Tenebrionid species for like a month now, and have had no panic problems yet).

Thanks to a good old friend of mine, Seb Marc, AKA "Santa Roach", I've got two new species of roach, one of which is an oldie but a goody in the US Blatticulture hobby, and the other is one that's completely new to US Blatticulture, I am actually one of a handful of people keeping this species in the whole world right now!

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In this post, we'll focus on the species new to US Blatticulture, one that I've wanted for quite a long time, that I left a clue about in the cryptic post I released last week... Ladies and gentlemen, I now have a starter colony of the adorable Bantua sp. "Namibia"! 😊 Bantua is one of several, very unique African Perisphaerinae genera, which are live bearers in the family Blaberidae. Funnily enough, the "African bullet roaches" many breeders are familiar with used to be called Bantua sp., despite obviously being oothecae layers in the family Blattidae, but these Bantua sp. "Namibia" are the real deal, and far more interesting to me, (albeit, less colorful than the African bullets).

These entered the European Blatticulture hobby in late 2017 I believe, and almost everyone's cultures ended up dying out, but not Seb's! He's kept them going strong for over a year, and now that he is leaving the hobby, he's been sending them to several breeders across the globe, me included. Hopefully we can keep this species going in the hobby, they appear to be like other Perisphaerinae in that once you've got their enclosure set up just right, they can be pretty dang easy to keep, with little to no die offs.

Seb told me that at first, the individuals in his colony liked nothing more than to climb on branches and such, and when they had no aboreal hides, they would rest on the sides of his enclosure. But nowadays, he's noticed a shift in his colony's behavior, now they prefer hiding in between stacks of horizontally and vertically placed bark slabs. So just in case, I've made sure my colony has lots of bark slabs to hide between AND branches to climb on, for variety's sake. Hopefully they'll enjoy this enclosure, it's one of my most elaborate builds yet! (Topped only by the secret Archiblatta hoeveni enclosure I built just before getting rid of most of my collection, which unfortunately went unused...).

In addition to lots of bark slabs and branches, the enclosure also has a small layer of leaf litter on top of about an inch of substrate, which consists of coconut fiber, Zilla jungle mix, and a small amount of rotten oak wood. I've given them quite a bit of ventilation, as it seems most Perisphaerinae like a high amount of airflow for optimal reproduction, I'm fairly certain they have enough ventilation holes at the moment, but I might have to add more in the future, time will tell. I'm keeping one corner of the enclosure moist, and the rest dry as I can, as apparently that's how this species likes it, (which makes sense, since they come from the arid regions of South Africa).

I'll be feeding them chick feed, fruits and veggies, and may offer artificial pollen in the future. As for cleaner crews, I've added some red Oribatid mites from my succulent pots to their enclosure, (as they are dry tolerant and fill the niche that the much worse grain mites inhabit), as well as a few booklice and a group of cotton springtails, Entomobrya unostrigata. All of those are pretty dry tolerant, and should work well as cleaner crews for this species, at least I certainly hope so! 😅
Lastly, I've put a heat cable under one half of the enclosure, as this species likes it pretty warm for breeding, and I will be replicating a day/night cycle to some extent by unplugging said heat cable at night. Hopefully it'll be enough to sufficiently heat the enclosure, (it'll certainly aid in keeping the substrate dry in that half of the enclosure at least!).

I have about a dozen or so nymphs, all in various stages of growth, pretty sure I have subadults or presubs of both sexes, which is exciting, can't wait to see some adults! 😀 Interestingly enough, nymphs seem to "hunker down" and tuck their appendages in a bit when resting, which I find absolutely adorable! You can see this behavior in the second photo below.

Well, without further adieu, here are some pictures of the cuties!

And their enclosure

Aren't they so unique? They can be surprisingly fast and pretty difficult to get a hold of, yet clumsy in a way, and when well fed or gravid, they look like little armored sausages! 😄 Their pronotum shape is quite interesting as well! Overall, it's quite an interesting species that I am really looking forward to working with, and I'll be sure to keep you all posted on any interesting developments!

Well, I think that's gonna do it for this post, we'll talk about the other roach species I got in my next post, (here's a hint, they prefer similar humidity conditions to the Bantua, come from the same continent, but are also burrowers). I'm glad to be back, and while posts are likely going to be a lot less frequent than they used to be, less frequent is better than non-existent! 😅
I hope you guys enjoyed this post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all soon! 😉

...nooS

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Acheta domesticus PSA

Hello there everybody, got a quick little story for ya'll! 😄

So back in December I bought four crickets for my rose hair tarantula, "Rosie", and low and behold, she decided to start fasting out of nowhere, as is the norm for this species. So rather than freezing or otherwise euthanizing my crickets, I decided to give them their own little enclosure for the time being, at least until my tarantula was hungry again.

Well ironically, after a few weeks in their new setup, they started dying off, one by one. At first I thought it may be dehydration, so I increased moisture levels and offered more fruits and veggies. That didn't work at all. I also thought it might just be territorial disputes, but when the population dwindled down to one cricket, and then it died too, I knew that wasn't the cause either.

After some research, I finally found out the culprit: the temperature. The temperature in my house was set to 68F°, and apparently Acheta domesticus need it slightly warmer to survive, around 74F° at least. I've inadvertently reared nymphs of this species from eggs to adulthood before, so I know the gist of their general care needs, but I had previously kept them in a warm closet where the ambient temps were in the mid to high 70s, never thought these would die when kept below those temps!

Anyways, I took some pictures of them on a whim a week after getting them, so here they are:

Well, at least I know better now, and I hope you all do too! 😅

Anyways, that's gonna be it for this post, hope it educated or at least amused some of you! Thanks for reading, see you all next time! 😉

Trilobite Beetles (Platerodrilus spp.) In Captivity (My Opinion)

Trilobite beetles, Platerodrilus spp., (once known as Duliticola), are some of the most well known and popular insects in the world, even many "normal" people who can't tell the difference between a cockroach and a longhorn beetle know about these little gems of the natural world, and are usually stunned by the unusual body shapes and often beautiful coloration of the larvae and adult females. Some people obviously think these beauties highly resemble the extinct but famous trilobites, thus the common name for this genus, (I for one don't think they resemble them more than isopods do, why aren't isopods called "mini trilobites" again?).

Platerodrilus ruficollis. Image courtesy of Nicky Bay. 

Of course, if they are as popular as they are with the insect fearing masses, you can guess that they are obviously one of the most wanted insects in any invertebrate breeder's collection! A couple Asian vendors have been selling some Platerodrilus as of late, and some European breeders will make trips to their native habitats and collect them for themselves, so I've been seeing a lot of posts about these beetles pop up in various breeder groups online, often accompanied by many, many comments from other people who want some trilobite beetles themselves.

However, most people who know anything about Platerodrilus know that they are notoriously poor captives; no one has ever bred them successfully, (though in one instance three larvae were hatched from eggs collected in the wild, but they died within weeks) and most imported larvae die before maturing. However when it comes to why that is, most people don't know the answer, so I figured I'd write up this post to help inform people as to why these beetles are not good captives, and likely never will be.

Platerodrilus sp. Image courtesy of Nicky Bay. 

Issue #1) Diet:

Surprisingly enough, even the world's leading experts on these beetles are not 100% sure what they feed on, and up until relatively recently, there was some conflict as to what their diet consisted of. However, the most popular and widely accepted theory is that these beetles feed on microorganisms living within the juices of rotten logs, as outlined in the findings of Alvin T. C. Wong (1996). Most Platerodrilus experts agree with Wong on that, so for now it should be treated as fact.

Now it's likely true that most of the microorganisms they feed on in the wild are likely endemic to their native habitats, and if that's the case then it's probable that microorganisms found in rotten logs from Europe and North America just wouldn't be enough to sustain Platerodrilus. Additionally, it's also unlikely that most of the microorganisms that Platerodrilus feed on could proliferate in a hobbyist's enclosure, especially if switched to a different wood type. Also, who knows what specific combination of microorganisms are needed for them to survive?

Now, one could theoretically feed trilobite beetles by giving them unsterilized rotten logs from their native habitat, however that is an unfeasible plan for any hobbyist that lives outside of their native habitat, and would be very unsustainable at that, taking away food and living quarters for wild trilobite beetles. Additionally since the logs couldn't be sterilized, there's no telling what pests could be dwelling within them, and they might thrive in your Platerodrilus enclosure more than the trilobite beetles themselves, and harm them in the process!

Seeing as their only known food source would be extremely difficult or impossible to cultivate in captivity, and likely very unethical to import, it's not likely that any hobbyist will ever be able to adequately feed their Platerodrilus in captivity. Case in point, most breeders' trilobite beetles die mere months after getting them, likely from starvation. They often seem to be doing well for a few months, but in reality they are likely just slowly starving. They don't seem to have a fast metabolism, and can likely go months without an adequate diet, (which isn't uncommon for beetle larvae). Any that molt in captivity likely just had enough food reserves left in them to molt once, and will probably die shortly after.

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that there are photos of Platerodrilus spp. feeding on slime mold, so microorganisms within rotten log juices are not the only documented food source for these beetles. However, it's unclear whether or not Platerodrilus spp. need specific species of slime molds to feed on, whether they need a combination of slime molds and rotten log juices or not, or whether slime molds are even needed in their diet, they could just be an unnecessary supplement to their main diet. Thus, this finding doesn't really change much. More scientific observations of wild individuals are needed to find out what is necessary in their diet before being kept by the average hobbyist.

Platerodrilus ngi. Image courtesy of Nicky Bay. 

Issue #2) Breeding:

Now, as many people know, adult female Platerodrilus look exactly like large, slightly more developed larvae, something known as neoteny. However, unbeknownst to many people, adult male Platerodrilus are actually winged, and look like your typical Lycidae adult... Oh yeah, and they are TINY, usually less than a quarter of the size adult females are. So you can pretty much be sure that ANY trilobite beetle larvae you ever buy are not male larvae, as only medium to large larvae (and maybe adult females) are collected and sold, smaller ones are either never found or simply ignored by most vendors. So seeing as most individuals for sale are immature females, that pretty much throws breeding them out the window.

However, even if you happened to buy a mated, mature female, or by some miracle got a male to mate with one of your females, and then got said female to lay all 200+ of her eggs, you'd be back to issue #1, diet. The resulting larvae are very small and a lot weaker than the large larvae sold by most vendors, and do not have the resistance to starvation that larger larvae have, so unless you have an adequate food source available for them, they'll be dead within three weeks, (at least that's what happened to Wong's wild egg hatchlings).

Platerodrilus foliaceus. Image courtesy of Nicky Bay. 

Issue #3) Threatening Wild Populations:

So, let's say that you aren't much disturbed by the first two issues, as you don't plan on breeding your Platerodrilus and just want something pretty to look at for a while, even if it's rather short lived. Maybe you just want a lot of attention from jealous hobbyists by posting beautiful pictures of your new trilobite beetles, to boost your reputation as a "breeder" and get more followers. Maybe you just think all the Platerodrilus experts out there are wrong and that there must be SOME way to breed them in captivity.

If that's your mentality, then there's one last thing I can mention that might change your mind, and that is that all known Platerodrilus species have very limited ranges, as many live in isolated areas and are unable to disperse to new ones, on account of the females being flightless. They do not actually appear to be protected under any conservation laws yet, but that is likely due to lack of proper research, and will probably change at some point in the future.

Limited ranges mean a limited population size, and that automatically puts these at high risk from habitat destruction, as many Platerodrilus are mostly found in very pristine rainforests, (though some can also be found in disturbed secondary forests, Nicky Bay pers comm). They are also at high risk from, you guessed it, overcollection. Every time you buy trilobite beetles, you are supporting the collection of these species with limited population sizes, and are doing nothing to help them be preserved in captivity, as believe it or not, issues #1 and #2 of this post are true and very large husbandry obstacles, and the information provided above is based on the knowledge of people far more experienced with this genus than you are.

Platerodrilus ngi. Image courtesy of Nicky Bay. 

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Honestly, writing this post was a little hard for me, I mean look at this blog, I'm all for breeding invertebrates in captivity, even very rare or legally questionable ones, as I think that getting species established in culture via captive breeding is one of the most important things we can do towards conservation of said species, even if it takes a few tries to find out their proper husbandry needs.

However, we now know most of what Platerodrilus feed on, and if we can't provide a proper diet for these things, the most FUNDAMENTAL part of any animal's husbandry, then I just don't think they should be kept in captivity. Who knows, maybe a zoo or something would be able to cultivate the micro flora and fauna needed to feed Platerodrilus, but I really don't think any hobbyists will be able to do it, they just don't have the resources needed.

Anyway, I hope this post proved informative to at least some hobbyists out there, this is different from my usual content on this blog, but I feel like this is an issue that needs more attention.

Many thanks to Nicky Bay for letting me use his beautiful Platerodrilus pictures, check out his Flickr here for more amazing wildlife photos!

Well, that's it for this post, thanks everyone for reading, see you all next time! 😉

Invertebrate Dude Caresheets

Hello everybody, long time no post!

Just wanted to announce that I've decided to make a dedicated blog for my caresheets, that way each sheet has it's own post, making it easier to find the caresheet you are looking for. I've moved all the old caresheets over, revised a couple, and plan on writing up some more in my free time.

Please do check out the new blog here, and be sure to check in from time to time, as I will probably be adding quite a few new ones over this next year. 🙂

Thanks for reading this little PSA, hope you enjoy the new blog!