The Bioluminescent Deilelater!!!

Finally, we've got a couple US Native Pyrophorini species in the hobby! 😁 Thanks to my buddy Alan Jeon, I have acquired two new species of Deilelater! 

Let's start with the 9 Deilelater sp. "Ocala, FL" he sent me. Alan collected the adults in FL earlier this year, and thankfully, while they were short lived, they laid some eggs in the setup he gave them. The larvae hatched after a few weeks, and now a couple months later, he's passed 9 of them on to me to help get them established in culture, which I'm confident I'll be able to do, given my positive experience in breeding the closely related Pyrophorus.

The adults of this small species have proven much more fragile than those of Pyrophorus, not only do they have a much thinner exoskeleton that can easily be cracked when collecting them, but they also seem to be very intolerant of even the slightest neglect. Thankfully the larvae are similar to those of Pyrophorus, and have proved rather hardy and easy to rear up, (most Elateridae larvae are like tanks if cared for properly).

I'll be keeping the larvae very similarly to those of Pyrophorus, in deli cups filled with a little crushed rotten wood/flake soil mix at the bottom, topped off with coconut fiber, kept humid and relatively warm. I'll feed them crushed chick feed for now, offer Tenebrionid larvae as they get bigger, and will offer course be keeping larvae separately, as they're almost certainly cannibalistic like Pyrophorus larvae, (and most Elaterids in general).

Here are some pictures of one of the little things:

Looking forward to seeing them grow up, will be cool to compare them to Pyrophorus larvae and see if there are any noticeable morphological differences. 

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But wait, there's more! Alan also collected a bunch of Deilelater physoderus adults from George West, TX last month, (which were noticeably larger than the FL species he collected), and has sent me a container full of rotten sawdust that he was keeping some in! I quickly searched around in it and found a couple TINY hatchling larvae, so it would appear they definitely bred for him! 😄

I'll be keeping the larvae similar to my other Pyrophorini, once they're big enough to isolate. For now they're too small to get pictures of, so here's just a picture of their current container:

So glad to have not one, but TWO US native headlamp click beetles in culture now, they may be more finicky and far smaller than Pyrophorus, but I'm really looking forward to rearing them and getting them established in the hobby nonetheless! 😄

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

My New Myrmecoblatta wheeleri!!!

Man, it's just been back to back posts lately hasn't it? 😂 I've just gotten some exciting new additions to my collection courtesy of my good friend Alan Jeon, but perhaps the most exciting are these adorable little Myrmecoblatta wheeleri! 😁 He caught them himself, in Camponotus ant colonies in FL. They're very tiny little things, Corydiids closely related to Compsodes, however this species have proven more difficult to culture than C.schwarzi.

Thanks to the observations of Brandon Maines, it seems like this species eats various mold types, and may need them as part of their diet, as when the mold blooms in Brandon's old Myrmecoblatta enclosure died out, the roaches did too, and it seems like the roaches themselves were cleaning up the mold from the enclosure. However, Alan Jeon insists they'll also eat dog food and algae wafers, so perhaps they are just generalists that enjoy feeding on molds, like Compsodes schwarzi. This species may prove somewhat difficult to culture, but hopefully not impossible, we'll see. 

Alan sent me two adult males, one subadult male, one adult female and one subadult female. I've got them set up in a minimally ventilated deli cup with a cm or so of moist coconut fiber mixed with roach frass, (my old Gyna capucina substrate), and some bark chips and small cork tile structures for them to hide in. 

For food I'll be offering basic roach chow like chick feed, fruits, maybe even artificial pollen, but also, mold. To achieve this, not only will I let the "normal" foods in their enclosure rot, but I'll also be microwaving bark chips every few days and place them in the enclosure. Freshly sterilized bark molds over pretty quickly, and should provide the roaches with food. Should they not lay any ooths on said bark, I'll nuke them again in a few days when the roaches have fed on all the mold, and rinse and repeat. 

I'll be keeping this species at room temps, since they don't seem to like it too warm, and I'll also be keeping them far away from the rest of my collection, to try and avoid any predatory mites or pests from my main collection getting into their enclosure, as being microfauna themselves, other microfauna may severely stress out and outcompete Myrmecoblatta wheeleri. 

Here are some pictures of these rarely seen, fragile little roaches:

Adult male

Adult and subadult males

Adult pair

Adult female

Adult and subadult females

Subadult female

Subadult male

Their enclosure

So adorable right? 😁 Males look like mini Hemiblabera, and females are just like little circular Compsodes.

I'll be sure to keep you all updated on them, there is a good chance I'll fail to breed these, as no one has ever reared captive produced nymphs to adulthood. But I will certainly do my best to culture this species, of that you can be sure! 

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, but stay tuned for more upcoming posts regarding the other species I got in this package from Alan! 😁 Stay safe, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all soon! 😉

My New Panesthia angustipennis cognata!!!

That's right, thanks to collaborating with Ty Randall of Ty Dye Exotics, I finally got a species that was actually on my wish list for a long time in the past, I am now working with Panesthia angustipennis cognata "Cambodia"! 😁 This is one of the smallest of the angustipennis subspecies, but my favorite, as the nymphs have the prettiest coloration of any Panesthia species in culture IMO. This is probably the first time they've been in the US for a year or so. 

Panesthia belong to the subfamily Panesthiinae, and pretty much all members in the Panesthiinae live inside of rotten logs in nature. They feed mainly on rotten wood, though will sometimes accept fruits and other foods in captivity, (though these should be offered sparingly). Adults of many species (including this one) are winged, and in the wild when they mature, they fly to a new log to colonize, and shed their wings like termite or ant alates do. However, unlike ants and termites, which pop off their wings rather cleanly, Panesthiinae have to rub and tear their wings against their tunnels, until they eventually rip off, leaving little torn wing stubs. Thankfully they don't need to fly or anything in captivity, and after maturing will just stay buried and rip their wings off in the same enclosure. 

Panesthia have been cultured a few times in the US, this very subspecies even, however they never last long. I suspect people in the US keep theirs too well ventilated, and then forget to water them, (as they need very little maintenance period), which leads to cultures drying out and dying... At least, that's likely the main cause of culture crashes here, but others may have lost theirs due to a multitude of other reasons. All I know is they seem to be pretty well established in Europe, and I hope I can help keep this species established here in the US. 

I am keeping my 10 mixed nymphs in a minimally ventilated gallon bin for now, though I may move them to a bigger one when they all mature. I've given them a substrate of rotten cottonwood with a little crushed leaf litter mixed in, several inches deep. I'll keep them moist, and occasionally offer apple slices and maybe chick feed, to see if they'll eat it. I'm keeping them at room temp, in the low 70s F°, which seems to be best for breeding this species. 

Here are some pictures of the nymphs:

So pretty, love the giant orange spots on the back! 😁 Looking forward to breeding this species, hopefully they'll do well for me! 

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

Mantis Ooths & A Gyna Epiphany

My Mantis religiosa female is doing quite well, and has laid two oothecae for me! 😁 Now, I'm not equipped to deal with mantid hatchlings yet, and TBH I don't have much interest in rearing this species myself, so all ooths laid by this female will be put outside where I found her. Which is just as well, considering I'm pretty sure these ooths need a diapause to hatch properly, could be wrong. 

Anyways, here are a couple pictures of one of them:

As you can see, a mantis oothecae is a weird, foamy looking structure, that conceals the eggs within. I'm pretty sure they hatch out alongside that white seam in the middle, usually a few dozen at a time, though numbers very between oothecae and species. 

Definitely an interesting thing to observe, I wonder how many this female will lay before passing away. 

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Also, figured out why my Gyna capucina colony crashed...

Remember the female from my last post about this species? Unfortunately, I found her dead in the enclosure a little over a week ago... 😭 However, her death was not in vain, as it was seeing her body that made me realize what is going on with my colony... 

She must have died within a couple hours of me checking their bin, as her exoskeleton was still soft, but she had been completely hollowed out by her tankmates. I was wondering how and why they could have cleaned her out so fast, when there was still food in their bowls, when it hit me like a truck, THE BOWLS... 

Since the day I first started keeping this species, I've always given them their grain based foods in bowls, and put the fruits directly on the substrate, but, back in late June, there was a big oribatid mite infestation, they were swarming food that touched the substrate, so I sterilized the substrate and started putting the fruit in little food bowls too. Now, they've always eaten more fruits than proteins, which I assumed was just due to preference... but I actually think that this species just CAN'T FIND FOOD IN BOWLS, and ever since I started offering all their food in bowls a month ago, they've just been starving and EATING EACH OTHER... 🙃 That's why my colony has crashed, and why there weren't any bodies, which I thought was unusual considering when my nymphs died off due to overcrowding or other issues, their tankmates rarely consumed their entire bodies. 

Lately they've just been eating the pieces of fruits that some of the larger nymphs drag into the substrate, and I've been wondering why they weren't eating that much compared to normal... It's because the nymphs can't find food in bowls. As for why my recently matured adult female died, I'm not sure, the hungry nymphs may have pestered her to death and ate her, or maybe she was stressed from having escaped her enclosure for an hour or so a couple days beforehand, (which was due to me stupidly leaving their enclosure open after doing maintenance, something I've never done in my 5 years of breeding roaches).

But now that I think I know why my colony crashed, I'm hoping I can save them. There are still several subadult females in there, and my subadult males are all doing OK, so fingers crossed I can get some females fertilized and get them to give birth, now that I'm not starving my colony to death... So weird, the other Gyna species I've kept in the past never had this issue. 

Anyways, that's gonna do it for today, thanks for reading, hope you all found the information useful, I do try to be as transparent as possible with my failures and successes on this blog, as mistakes as simple as giving your roaches a food bowl can sometimes be a life or death situation... Stay safe, have a great day, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉

More Phortioeca Photos

Well, I've sent the Phortioeca sp. "Ecuador" out to their owners now, but I did manage to get a few more pictures of them before I did, so here they are! 😁

Such a beautiful species, I look forward to working with them myself one day! 

Also, interesting thing to note, while these nymphs absolutely went to town on the apple I fed them, (which was to be expected, as their close relative Lanxoblatta rudis mainly eat fruits in captivity), the Phortioeca, also ate nearly all of the chick feed I offered them too. So this species may appreciate more protein being offered in their diet than Lanxoblatta. 

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! 😉

A Phortioeca Preview!

That's right, we now have Phortioeca sp. "Ecuador" in the US hobby! 😁 I've just collaborated with two of the most prominent members of US Blatticulture to get these beauties into the US, and I'm glad to say it was a success! 

Now, these individuals are all going to those two respective hobbyists, but once they breed theirs I will be getting a culture of this species as well, so this is a little preview of what's to come in the future! 😄

Here are some pictures of the medium nymphs of this beautiful new species:

Very pretty right? Adults are awesome looking too, see this picture here of what appears to be the same species as this one.

I'm looking forward to seeing these beauties become established in US Blatticulture, and I can't wait to get to keep some myself next year! 😁

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