Hanging On by a Thread...

Well, as you guys may know, I am down to one female Arenivaga tonkawa. I have been pretty confused as to what age she is, when I got her I thought she was an adult due to her size, however after several months of never seeing her lay a single ooth, fertile or otherwise, I assumed that she was still a nymph. 

However, today after checking on her, I found that she was beginning to laying an ooth! I have no idea whether it's fertile or not, she has not molted once in my care so I got her as an adult, so there is a chance she had already mated when I got her. However, I still have no idea why she has not laid any oothecae before now, even if she has not mated, she should still lay infertile oothecae like most roaches do. 

I have noticed that my adult A.cf.genitalis female has not laid any ooths at all in the few months she's been mature though, so perhaps Arenivaga females do not lay infertile oothecae like other roaches do, maybe to conserve more resources. But if this ootheca is fertile, I still don't know why she has not laid any other ooths prior to this one, I have searched through the substrate and have not found any oothecae at all, maybe I need to look closer...

Anyway, here are some pictures of the female laying the ootheca!

Hopefully this oothecae turns out to be fertile, would be nice to get babies out of this species without having to buy more!

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My Dorylaea orini adults are starting to die off, and most of the oothecae have turned out to be infertile, even some of the good looking ones. :( I have taken out the last 5 oothecae that look fairly healthy, there is a good chance that they are all duds, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some may hatch! 

Here is a picture of the oothecae:

I really hope at least one ooth hatches, I really wanted this species to do well for me, they are very beautiful!

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Unfortunately it seems my Rhabdoblatta formosana colony is crashing, NONE of my adults are reproducing, they keep aborting their oothecae, I even separated a few individuals to their own, new enclosure, and still no luck. I'm pretty sure it's the large numbers of Alphitobius diaperinus and Porcellio scaber that are stressing them out, so this week I will be completely cleaning out their cage of all other invertebrates and replacing the substrate and decor in a last-ditch effort to save my culture, though I'm not too optimistic that it will change anything.

Anyway, here are some pictures of a nice looking female, if my colony crashes these may be the last pictures you guys see of this species on my blog. :(

Hopefully I can get things to turn around for these guys, will be sure to keep you all posted!

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It's been a while since I posted about my Melanolestes picipes, mainly because I have failed miserably at breeding them. :( My nymphs all matured, however they were extremely aggressive to each other, and when I tried pairing them up to mate, the females would often eat the males, except for one savage male that ended up killing all but one of my females. I paired those two together, and they seemed to do well with each other for a couple weeks, then the male died. 

Unfortunately I never saw any mating activity, and my female has not laid a single egg, so it seems once she dies, this species will be gone from my collection. 

Here are some pictures I took of her today, she had lived a surprisingly long time, possibly because she has not had to deal with the stress of reproducing.

Well, it was certainly fun keeping these guys, sucks that I wasn't able to get another generation out of them, but I'm still glad I got the chance to keep these neat critters nonetheless. Later this year I may try keeping some larger, more easily cultured assassin bugs, so I'm looking forward to that! :)

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Lastly, and what is perhaps the biggest tragedy to happen in my collection recently, all but one of my Jerusalem cricket eggs have molded over and died. This last egg looks really plump and healthy, however even if it hatches, I will not be able to breed it. :( Surprisingly, my female, Ripper, is still alive, really amazed at her longevity!

This was a breeding project that I was really hoping would end in a success, however it seems it was just not meant to be. Maybe I'll try again one day, at least now I have more experience in mating JCs, and know a lot more about their care needs than I used to! 

Well I hope you guys enjoyed this somber post, usually I only like to post about my successes, but I do want to post about all my experiences breeding invertebrates on this blog, both the good and the bad, so here we are. Anyways, will see you guys soon, hope you all have a great day/night! :)

Panchlora sp. "White" & Drymaplaneta Updates

The Panchlora sp. "White" nymphs are all doing very well, and have started to burrow a lot more. They are also growing quite fast, which is great, can't wait until I have adults again!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the nymphs:

Very glad the nymphs have done so well, here's hoping that they mature with no problems!

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Another one of my Drymaplaneta semivitta oothecae has hatched, got another twelve or so nymphs now! That leaves only three more oothecae to hatch, hopefully they will do so soon!

Here are some pictures of a few of the new nymphs:

They all seem to have taken to the egg cartons in their enclosure very nicely, that's where they spend most of their time now, as opposed to the upper rim of the enclosure, which makes cage maintenance much easier.

Also, just wanted to let you guys know that Invertebrate Dude now has it's own Facebook page! Check it out here!

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)

Some Roach Updates

Finally, after a long wait, my Arenivaga cf. genitalis male has finally matured, and he's a handsome devil of a sand roach! I love the dark markings on the wings, much different than the markings on the wings of A.bolliana. Hopefully he will mate with my female and she can start laying some oothecae!

Here are some pictures of the male:

Here's hoping I can breed this species successfully!

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My Byrsotria fumigata nymphs have been maturing, and I was a little worried they may be hybrids between B.fumigata and B.sp. "Cuba", (my B.fumigata females were shipped in the same container as male B.sp. "Cuba"), however after chatting with Kyle Kandilian, it seems that they are probably pure B.fumigata, which is great, as the last thing this hobby needs is more hybrids!

Anyway, I took some pictures of them recently, so here they are:

So it seems that they are most likely pure B.fumigata, which I am very happy about, will still be keeping a close eye on my culture though, just in case...

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My Corydidarum nymphs have been doing very well, some have even molted to the 3rd instar, which is great! While checking on them the other day, I noticed some of the nymphs were huddled around one of the females. As I started taking pictures of them, the female protectively got on top of the nymphs and shielded them from me, which I found absolutely adorable.

Here are those pictures of them, (in the last pic you can just barely see one of the nymphs poking out from under the female):

I really love this species, I'm so happy that they've done well for me, they are just such unique and interesting little roaches! :)

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Finally, I just wanted to announce that all of my Paranauphoeta discoidalis nymphs have matured! :) They did so quite a while back actually, I just never got around to saying so. Also, my original female died a while back, but produced one more litter of half a dozen nymphs before she did. My new adults have yet to produce any offspring, but they should soon!

Here are a couple of pictures I took earlier today, sorry for the poor quality:

I'll be trading half of my adults off pretty soon, (I hope), for some very cool new roaches that I'm excited to share with you, so stay tuned for that.

Anyways, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys all enjoyed, I'll see you all next post! :)

Drymaplaneta nymphs!!

Yesterday while checking up on all my enclosures I found that one of my Drymaplaneta semivitta oothecae had hatched, all twelve nymphs were hanging out around the lid of the enclosure! This species apparently loves to climb, and the nymphs did not want to use any of the hides I provided them, which is gonna make feeding them a pain, (and made taking pictures of them a pain too).

After a long and difficult photo session, I was able to get a couple pictures of the nymphs that weren't absolute garbage, so here they are lol:

I'm very happy that I ended up getting nymphs, I was a bit skeptical that the oothecae would hatch after being exposed to the cold while they were being shipped, but they seem to be pretty hardy. Here's hoping the rest will hatch soon too!

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, exciting developments are starting here at the Invertebrate Dude collection, so stay tuned for some posts on some interesting new invertebrates within the following months! Hope you guys enjoyed this post, I'll see you all soon! :)

Some Misc Updates

First off, let's start with a Jerusalem cricket update. Unfortunately Sam has died, I found her on top of the substrate next to two eggs, I searched the substrate and sadly found no other eggs. I don't know why she died before laying all her eggs, I should have gotten over twenty from her. Strangely enough, Ripper is still doing well, I thought she would die soon after laying her second clutch, but she's still kicking, so that's good.

Some of the eggs are still molding over, it appears to be rather random, some of the old eggs have molded over and some of the new ones have as well, and yet there are still some eggs from both clutches that seem perfectly healthy. Hopefully some of them will avoid perishing and hatch, I would really like to get a second generation of these guys going. Will keep you all posted.

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My Corydidarum pygmaea are doing great, the babies are getting plumper, I'm pretty sure they are all going to molt again soon. I realized I never took any pictures of their new enclosure, so I took a couple of pictures today just so you guys have an idea of how they are housed.

Here is their enclosure:

They really like hiding under the curved bark pieces in the enclosure, as well as under the rotten wood chunks hidden under the bark. So far the babies have been doing great, here's hoping I'll be able to rear them to adulthood!

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And finally, a little update on my Oniscus asellus "Dalmatian". They are doing great, and producing a decent amount of offspring, which still so far have only been "Dalmatian" morph individuals! Plus, the first few offspring they produced are growing pretty fast, won't be long until they reach sexual maturity themselves.

Anyway, here are a few pictures I took of them today:

I am very happy these have been doing well for me, as you may know, I've had some trouble isolating other isopod morphs in the past, so it's a relief that these have been producing offspring that are actually of the "Dalmatian" morph.

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)

Another Jerusalem Cricket Egg Update

I'm sad to say that most of the eggs from Ripper's first clutch have decomposed and molded over, seems they may have been infertile. :( While there are still some healthy looking eggs from that clutch, I have a suspicion that none of them will hatch.

This is pretty disappointing, was really excited about the prospect of breeding these guys, but things are heading south fast. Will keep you guys posted.

More Jerusalem Cricket Eggs & A Couple Roach Updates

Yesterday I took a look at Ripper's enclosure and saw an egg in the substrate through the side of the container. I thought it may have been an extra egg from her last clutch that I missed, and so I dug it up carefully, and ended up finding six eggs! Today I examined the enclosure more carefully and found another six close to where the others were, so it looks like she laid another clutch of twelve eggs! I'm very excited that she has laid so many eggs already, here's hoping they all hatch!

Will keep you guys posted as to any new developments!

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I am very happy to announce the introduction of a new species to my collection, I have acquired five oothecae of the Gisborne Cockroach, Drymaplaneta semivitta! It is a species that has been bred in Japan for a while and has come and gone from the European hobby, cultures can apparently be difficult to maintain over a long period of time, for what reason exactly I don't know. I have no idea if the oothecae will end up hatching or not, as they were in the mail for a week and the weather has been pretty chilly, but I'm really hoping they will!

Anyway, I took some pictures of their enclosure and of the oothecae themselves, here they are!

The enclosure

The oothecae

Now, the oothecae are a bit shriveled and dimpled, which in other species suggests the oothecae are duds, however apparently this is a normal feature of this species' oothecae, according to this site here.

Fingers crossed the oothecae end up hatching, I'll definitely try taking some pictures of the hatchlings if they do!

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Lastly, I wanted to give you guys a small update on my Parcoblatta zebra. They are doing pretty well, the nymphs my original adults produced have already matured and are reproducing themselves, so it looks like I'll have a sizable colony before long! :)

Here are some pictures of an adult female:

This species is definitely a pretty one, and I am very glad to have some in my collection!

Anyways, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)