Hemithyrsocera vittata, Hopefully Here to Stay!

Ty Schaben Order Pt. 1/8

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In another joint venture with Ty Randal of Ty Dye Exotics, I've just received a large shipment of roaches, most of which have been in the US at one point or another, but were sadly lost from culture here... So I'm doing to devote several different posts to these species from this latest package (most of which I get to keep groups of), so stay tuned for info and pics of all these awesome new additions to my collection and US Blatticulture in general! 😁

Now, rather than saving the best for last, I'm just gonna showcase the species I was the most excited to receive in this package first, the beautiful Asian clown roach, Hemithyrsocera vittata! 😄 It's cousin, H.palliata is already doing pretty well here in US Blatticulture, but despite this species having been introduced to the US hobby a couple times before, they've never stuck around long, I suspect because they usually went to people inexperienced with finicky Ectobiids... Luckily, I have quite a bit of positive experience working with that exact group of roaches, so fingers crossed I can establish a colony and help get these established in US Blatticulture for good! 🤞

These roaches are diurnal, active, and brightly colored. Hatchling nymphs are ant mimics, and all life stages seem to roam foliage in the wild, feeding on pollen, possibly nectar, as well as all manner of decaying organic material. As the nymphs age they develop various patterns of red, white, black, and even silver-ish blue. Adults are fully winged, black with yellow patterning. All life stages climb well, and adults can fly. 

I'm keeping my 7-8 small nymphs in a tall gallon container, with no ventilation currently. Two large holes have been melted into the enclosure, one near the top, and one near the bottom, on opposite sides. I've filled said holes with sponge, and will use them as feeding/misting holes once the colony gets to a large size and opening the top lid won't be as good an idea... But for now I can easily do maintenance by just opening the lid. They're on a substrate of coconut fiber, and I've got vertically slanted bark and leaf litter in there as hides. I'm keeping them at around 75F° or so, and pretty humid too. 

I've given them two feeding areas, one on the ground next to the bark, and one on a cork tile "shelf" I made in the enclosure, near the top, that they have to climb to. So far they seem to be able to find food in both areas, so that's good.I'm feeding them chick feed, artificial pollen, and fresh fruits.

Here are a few crappy pictures I was able to take of a nymph, they are very hyper and difficult to photograph! 😅

Such a pretty species, hopefully I can get better pics of them soon! Fingers crossed they do well for me and breed prolifically! 🤞

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, but stay tuned for more, I've got some awesome new additions coming from multiple different sources, so I'll probably take turns posting about different packages... Next post will be about some beetles I've received from Bugsincyberspace along with my rhino roaches, so stay tuned for that... 😁 Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next post! 😉

Big Blattodeans From Bugsincyberspace!

Well, it has been a long time coming. I have kept many roach species in the past, from readily available beginner species, to rare, nearly impossible to obtain ones. And yet I've never actually kept what many consider to be THE holy grail of Blatticulture, despite having wanted them for many years. Thanks to the extreme generosity of Peter Clausen of Bugsincyberspace, I now own a pair of the amazing, enormous, Macropanesthia rhinoceros! 😁

These are the heaviest roaches in the world, and also probably the slowest growing, with nymphs taking three to five years to mature. They mainly eat leaf litter, though this should be supplemented with protein and fruits for optimal growth. Adult females only give birth once a year, if that, and adult males will occasionally commit filicide and eat their own offspring, so it's recommended that you remove them from the enclosure when you're expecting a brood. A very slow growing/breeding species, thus their high price tag and rarity in the hobby. 

I got a pair of L3/4 nymphs, which I've got set up in a gallon shoebox container with a moderate amount of ventilation, and less than a cm of coconut fiber for the substrate. They've got some cardboard pieces for hides, and leaf litter to nibble on of course. I'll be keeping half the enclosure humid, the other half fairly dry, and the enclosure will be kept in the low to mid 70s (F°), as they are rather heat sensitive.

Here are some pictures of the little cuties:

They're so adorable! 😍 Really looking forward to rearing these beauties up to adulthood, it's gonna be three to five years, but it'll be worth it to see some adults of the heaviest roach in the world in person! 😁

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all very soon! 😉

Arenivaga bolliana Dark Form Hatchlings!!!

That's right, at least one of my Arenivaga bolliana "Del Rio, TX" (Dark form) ooths Alan sent me has hatched, I found hatchlings in the enclosure on November 3rd! 😁 

Very cute little things, here's a few pictures of one of them:

So happy I've got offspring of this color form, fingers crossed the other ooths hatch and I can rear up all the hatchlings! 🤞

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

Perhaps a Hobby First: Pictures of a Cryptoglossa Pupa!

That's right, I've got up close pictures of a Cryptoglossa muricata pupa, and this may be the first time pictures of pupae of this species have ever been taken, or at least shared online! 😁

The person who sent me my previous two C.muricata larvae sent me her last one to try and rear (even though she herself has now reared two of them up to adulthood herself!), which I received on Oct 23rd. Turns out it was an essentially immobile, pre-pupal larva, and as soon as I received it I placed it in an artificial pupal cell in a warm area so it could pupate properly. The artificial pupal cell is a concave layer of moist (but not wet) sand, in a moderately ventilated 2 oz deli cup. 

On Oct 28th, the larva pupated, at which point I was able to get some pictures! 

Unfortunately, one of the hind legs is weirdly bent behind the pupa, I don't know why or how that happened, but hopefully it makes it to maturity and ecloses successfully nonetheless! 🤞

Here are some pictures of the pre-pupal larva, and the pupa:

Pre-pupal larva

Pupa

The pupae of this species look pretty cool, kinda chonky! 😄 My other pupa is developing nicely BTW, and hopefully will mature soon. 🤞

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

Ant Cricket Calamity...

Unfortunately my Myrmecophilus cf. manni died off about a month ago... Around September 18th or so, I noticed there were a lot of predatory mites in my Myrmecophilus jar, like a lot, which I assumed were eating the springtails and oribatid mites that had been plentiful in said jar for the last couple months... I saw a few of the cricket hatchlings through the sides of the jar, so I thought they were OK.  But September 23rd, I checked the jar, and there were predatory mites EVERYWHERE, crawling all over the walls of the jar and the substrate, and I didn't see any crickets... So I just checked the jar thoroughly, and yup, all my Myrmecophilus were dead... 😭 And the springtails in there had nearly been wiped out. 

I think what happened was the predatory mites went to town on the other microfauna in the jar, not the crickets themselves, and it was the tactile contact and swarming behavior of the predatory mites that stressed the Myrmecophilus out and killed them all... Because the ant cricket hatchlings are about the size of Compsodes hatchlings, and I never saw any predatory mites eating Compsodes hatchlings, so I think that prey that size is just too big for these particular mites.

In any case, my culture crashed, and predatory mites seem to blame, because they had their boom, and then my crickets crashed... 

Unfortunately, I've been looking for more the past couple weeks, but it seems the cooler Fall temps have sent most of the ants around here deep underground, so none of the spots I've seen Myrmecophilus before have active ant colonies under them anymore... Oh well, hopefully in the Spring I can catch more and try again.

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

Prionotheca Update #6

Well I forgot to update this series, but a week or two ago my friend sent me her last Teneb larvae, and thankfully one of them was indeed another Prionotheca larva! 😁 So I now have three confirmed Prionotheca, hopefully I can rear all three to adulthood and get a pair, fingers crossed! 🤞

My New Nyctoporis carinata!

Last week I received a gravid adult female Nyctoporis carinata from my friend coniontises, (author of the Splendid Unknowns Blog), which he had caught as a dying, crippled adult, and rehabilited to the point where she was laying eggs for him! He kindly offered to send her my way, and I accepted that offer, as this is a genus I've been wanting to breed, and document what the larvae and pupae look like. 😁

She is missing a lot of her tibiae, and moves quite slowly, in sort of a hobble, but despite this she just keeps on trucking, and I think I've seen her exhibit oviposition behavior, so fingers crossed I get larvae! 🤞

I have her set up in a lidless 24 oz container with a mix of sand and coconut fiber as the substrate, about a CM deep. According to coniontises, this female has oviposited in plain paper towels, so this species probably isn't picky about their oviposition medium at all, thus I probably could have used plain coconut fiber, but sand and coconut fiber is a pretty standard, foolproof oviposition substrate IME.

I'm keeping a third of the substrate moist, the rest dry, and she's got bark pieces and half a cardboard roll for hides. I'm feeding her chick feed and banana, (the latter I'm only providing because I worry if she can even eat the hard chick feed in her state). I've also thrown in some crushed leaf litter here and there, for the larvae if I get any. I'm keeping her at around 75F°, as this should help get her laying eggs faster.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the female:

A very cool looking darkling beetle, hopefully she lays a decent amount of eggs for me and I can rear said larvae up to adulthood! I believe this particular species has been successfully bred in captivity before, but I can't find pictures of larvae or pupae online, so I would love to photograph them and post them here on the blog for future reference. 🙂

Well, that's gonna do it for today, big thanks to coniontises for this interesting new addition! 😀 I hope everyone enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, if you're in the USA please VOTE, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉