Arenivaga floridensis & Pystalla horrida Updates!!!

So, my female A.floridensis finally matured this week, took her long enough! She's a real beauty, here's hoping she lays some oothecae! 😁

Adult female Arenivaga floridensis "White":

Will keep you all updated on her status! 😊

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And my Psytalla horrida have been doing extremely well, lots of eggs have been hatching, and some of my nymphs have already molted to L2!!!

Here are a couple pictures of them:

So happy this species has been thriving for me, they are really helping to cull my Pycnoscelus nigra colony! 😄

Well, that's it for this post, hope you all enjoyed, will see you guys next time! 😉

Simandoa & Hormetica Updates!

Well, my largest Simandoa conserfariam nymph is a nymph no more, he matured a couple days ago, and he is beautiful! 😁 I can't believe it took me this long to acquire this species, the beautiful adult coloration, coupled with the faint squeaking they make when disturbed has made me fall in love with them! 😄

Here are some pictures of him:

He's really something isn't he? Can't wait until the other two nymphs mature, this is one good looking species!

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Speaking of good looking species, two of my Hormetica apolinari males have matured, and oh boy are they gorgeous!!! 😍

Unfortunately they are runts, I've been keeping all six of mine in a gallon enclosure, planning on moving them when they seemed crowded, but instead of them getting crowded, I just stunted their growth, which is a bit of a bummer... But hey, they are still stunning regardless, and I'll be rehousing them very soon! 🙂

Here are some pictures of the males:

And here is a male compared to a male L.grossei

I really hope I can breed this species successfully, unfortunately my L.grossei female died without producing any offspring, and my L.subcincta female hasn't given birth either... 😢 Hopefully the same thing won't happen to my H.apolinari, we'll find out I suppose.

Well, that's gonna do it for today folks, thanks for reading, will see you all next time! 😉

Coniontis sp. "CA" & Corydidarum Updates!

My Coniontis sp. "CA" are doing pretty well, and my first CB adult is hardened up and ready to join the main colony! 🙂 It has a much thicker layer of wax than the other adults do, which will probably wear off a bit after a few weeks.

Here are some pictures of it:

And what's more, a second pupa has enclosed, and I found another pupa and a pre-pupa as well!
Here are a couple pictures of the more teneral adult:

Finally getting a good amount of larvae pupating now, hopefully this trend will continue! 😊

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My Corydidarum pygmaea culture is sitting in a pretty good spot, there were at least two litters born last month, maybe three. The combination of heat, high ventilation, rotten logs for boring, and slightly dry upper layers of substrate but high air humidity really seems to be boosting their reproduction! 😄

Speaking of which, here are some photos I took of a mating pair, something you rarely see with this species!

Always a good sign more nymphs are on the way! 😁

Anyways, that does it for this post, hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all next time! 😉

Panchlora sp. "White" News & a Much Needed Lanxoblatta Update!!!

I recently rehoused my Panchlora sp. "White" culture back to a gallon enclosure, as the nymphs getting to be half grown now, and I didn't want to overcrowd them. The day after rehousing, I was happy to find some tiny newborn nymphs in the enclosure as well! 😁 I haven't gotten an accurate count yet, and won't bother to in fear of stressing them out, but there are at least half a dozen+.

However, my young adult female is showing black coloration where her internal ootheca is/was. I'm not sure if she's the one who gave birth or not, or what is up with the black insides, but I'm willing to bet this doesn't bode well for her... 🙁

Anyway, here are some pictures of an adult male and the new enclosure:

The adults and even the nymphs really like hiding in this "roach hut" I constructed for them out of corkboard. The newborn nymphs of this species seem to have long thin legs, and prefer seeking pre-existing cavities in which to hide, rather than construct burrows themselves like the larger nymphs do.

Anyway, my colony's numbers seem to be on the rise, so hopefully the next couple generations will prove to be very prolific!

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Now, last month another litter of Lanxoblatta rudis nymphs was born, despite me moving them to a colder area of the room to prevent any reproduction until I had some more hides for them. Sadly, a decent portion of those nymphs have died off, and it seems like all suitable resting areas in the enclosure have been claimed.

Finally though, a light at the end of the tunnel! I made a trade with Leo Dutkewych, (owner of Leo's Invertebrate Blog and a long time supporter of this one), and received a box full of Birch bark, which should work very nicely for this species! 😃

Here are a few pictures of their enclosure, pimped out with some of the Birch bark:

I will be placing their cage next to my heat cable again, so reproduction may commence at a quickened pace! Hopefully I'll be swimming in nymphs soon! In the meantime, me and another buddy will be working on coming up with a more permanent hide option for this species, (as they will chew through the bark and render it useless after a few months).

Well, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all next time! 😉

My New Porcellio bolivari Females!

I did another trade with Alan Grosse, owner of Captive Isopoda, and got some Porcellio bolivari females from him! 😁 The first package he sent arrived about two weeks ago, he sent four females and two extra males, (which was very nice of him!). However, one female was dead on arrival, and another seems to have died shortly after, (At least, she was acting very sluggish after arriving. Now I can't find her, but I did find what looked like pieces of exoskeleton belonging to her).

He sent replacements this week, and I'm happy to say they arrived alive and well today! He sent two replacement females as well as a third one, which was very generous of him! Now I've got 5 females total, which is fantastic! 😄

This time I've set up a much larger enclosure for these gals, with a TON of ventilation and plenty of hides. I will be housing just one small male with them this time, and will probably remove him once I notice females becoming gravid. Hopefully nothing will go wrong this time, I really want to breed this species successfully!

Here are a couple pictures of the new females:

Hopefully they won't take too long to become gravid, will be sure to keep you all updated on them! 😉

Spring Cleaning

Well it's that time of year again, time to "clean up" my collection so to speak, and get rid of whatever species I no longer want, and those that have been compromised by pathogens.

I decided to release my Hymenorus sp., as well as my main Eleodes rileyi colony. I lost interest in breeding both, however I did manage to pupate a few larvae of the latter, which, when mature, I will keep separate in various other Tenebrionid/cockroach enclosures as pets, (much like I did with my Eleodes hispilabris).

My Edrotes ventricosus have all died off now, with no signs of any eggs being laid unfortunately. 😩 No sort of "Spring cleaning" with these, they just died out by themselves due to old age.

Unfortunately, I've frozen and disposed of my entire Embaphion cf. contusum colony, as they became infested with some sort of entomophagus fungus. All the larvae kept dying prematurely, and when they died they became very hard and crispy. When broken, you could see the insides were literally just fungus. If left in the substrate, their bodies became encrusted in white and green mold. The adults didn't seem to be as badly affected, but they were dwindling down for sure, so I just euthanized them all to prevent the fungus from spreading to other cultures.

My Blaberus sp. "Venezuela" haven't been doing all that well for me, with several of my females aborting oothecae and one giving birth to a extremely small litter. I attribute this to the relatively shallow enclosure I kept them in, apparently they do enjoy a lot more verticality than I thought they did, (my B.atropos were content to stay buried most of the time). So, I gave them away to a friend, hopefully they'll do much better in his care!

I also gave away my CB Pasimachus sp. "AZ" with the elytra deformity to the same friend. That breeding project had become an obvious dead end, and I didn't really have much of a desire to keep it any longer, so I figured I'd give it away to someone else who would get more enjoyment out of it than I would.

Lastly, I fed off the remainder of my Deropeltis sp. "Jinka" adults, while their defensive fluids may deter most vertebrate predators, they are no match for my hungry Rose hair tarantula and my Scolopendra longipes. Thus ends the Deropeltis saga... for now.

Well, that's it for this post, just wanted to let you all know what's left my collection! Thanks for reading, will see you all next time! 😉

Some more Paranauphoeta discoidalis Woes... [Edited]

Well, my Paranauphoeta discoidalis colony is still hanging in the balance a bit, there's been another litter or two produced in the couple weeks, but there is still a slow trickle of adults dying off, as well as some nymphs! 😧

I've increased ventilation quite a bit to help keep things from getting overly humid, which I believe may be tied to the deaths, however I've noticed that the dead individuals become covered in white mold after a couple days... I'm not sure whether this is just normal mold that is growing on them because of a lack of springtails in the enclosure, or the dreaded entomophagus fungus. 😨

I have placed two Parcoblatta americana nymphs, one Balta notulata nymph and an adult Panchlora sp. "Costa Rica Yellow" in the enclosure with the Paranauphoeta now, their enclosure should be adequate enough for them to live normal, long lives. If any of them die prematurely and become covered in mold, I'll know pretty much for sure that the enclosure is infested with entomophagus fungus, and will have to destroy it. If they don't die prematurely, then I'll know something else is at play...

Thus continues the frustrating and stressful Paranauphoeta mystery... I'll keep you all updated on them.

Well, thanks for reading everyone, I will see you all next time!

PS: Well, I actually remembered that several weeks ago, I placed bark pieces that were previously in my old Paranauphoeta discoidalis enclosure, (that came into contact with dead, moldy adults), into several other roaches enclosures without sterilizing them.

Most notably I put large pieces of bark in my Lanxoblatta rudis and Eurycotis lixa enclosures, and neither are showing any signs of being infected with entomophagus fungi at all, (and the Eurycotis have really chewed up their bark pieces), so that's a good sign that I'm not dealing with an entomophagus fungus here! ☺ We'll see what happens to the other roaches I put in the main Paranauphoeta enclosure before coming to any conclusions though...