Saturday, February 28, 2015

Hemiblabera tenebricosa nymphs!

I just got these from Peter at Bugsincyberspace.com! They are eating dog food, and I will try to feed them fruits and veggies soon. The substrate is coconut fiber and sphagnum moss. I am keeping them moist. They are cute and entertaining little things, and they love to burrow! Here are some pics!

Nymphs (They are eating dog food in this first pic)


The cage
These grow much faster than the Polyphagids, so I will hopefully have adults in a few months, rather than a few years! Hope you guys enjoy!

Coniontis sp substrate change

Due to a heavy mite infestation, I had to replace the substrate and decor, and wash out the container. The substrate is now coconut fiber and sphagnum moss. One of my two adults died, so I really hope I can successfully rear the larva to adults soon. Here is a picture of the fresh enclosure.


Anyway, that's it for today, hope you guys enjoy! :)

Friday, February 27, 2015

C.agassizii new enclosure

I got these guys a new and larger cage. Here it is!


They are doing well, and hopefully the male fighting will stop. Hope you guys enjoy!

Orange domino roach nymphs!!

I just got 5 of these from peter! I am feeding them dead leaves and dog food, and will add some veggies to the diet later. The substrate is coconut fiber with a little sphagnum moss mixed in. I am keeping them moist, and will probably let the top layer of the substrate dry out before I moisten the cage again. The nymphs may take a year or two to mature, but it is worth the wait! Here are some pictures! 

Nymphs

Their cage
I can't wait until they mature! Hope you guys enjoy!

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Armadillidium vulgare

These are the common "roly polys" found pretty much everywhere. They are easy to keep, as long as you give them lots of ventilation. They eat dead leaves, dog food, fruits and veggies. The substrate is coconut fiber and Zoo med jungle mix. I keep them moist. They take a while to grow, but can have very large litters, which makes the colony seem to grow quickly. Here are some pictures!





Unusually colored adult.

And here is the cage
This is a hardy species, and it is cool to watch them roll up into balls! Hope you guys enjoy!

The new roaches have arrived!!!

My order from Peter at Bugsincyberspace has arrived!!! All the roaches are alive and healthy, and he sent lots of freebies!
I ordered:
4 Orange domino roach nymphs
5 Question mark roach nymphs
5 Domino roach nymphs
5 Burmese beetle mimic nymphs
6 Horseshoe crab roach nymphs
And I got:
5 Orange domino roach nymphs
8 Question mark roach nymphs
8 Domino roach nymphs
8 Burmese beetle mimic nymphs
8 Horseshoe crab roach nymphs

I am very happy with my order, and I can't wait to do business with Peter again!
I do not have any pictures of my new roaches yet, but I will get some up as soon as possible! Hope you guys enjoy!

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Ellychnia hatchi larva

This is a species of diurnal firefly native to northwest america, and unfortunately, the adults do not glow in the dark. However, the larva do! I have kept this species in the past, with limited success. I found two larva under some rocks today, and decided to give them another shot. The larva eat earthworms, most of the time ones much, much bigger than them! I have not had any luck feeding them anything else. Two very cool facts about these is that 1: The larva will work together to take down prey, and 2: They would rather starve to death than eat each other. I am keeping them in a deli cup, with 3 dozen pinholes in the top. For substrate I am using coconut fiber and sphagnum moss. I am keeping it moist. Here are some pictures!

Larva

Cage
Hopefully I can rear them to adulthood! Wish me luck, and I hope you guys enjoyed! :)

Monday, February 23, 2015

Roaches on the way!!!!

I have just ordered some roaches from Peter at Bugsincyberspace.com, and I can't wait until they're here!
I ordered:
5 Burmese beetle mimic nymphs (Ergula capucina)
6 Horseshoe crab roach nymphs (Hemiblabera tenebricosa)
5 Domino roach nymphs (Therea petiveriana)
5 Question mark roach nymphs (Therea olegrandjeani)
4 Orange domino roach nymphs (Therea regularis)

I am very excited!! Will keep you guys updated!

My Eleodes obscurus

I caught these last year close to the snake river. The females are among the largest of the Eleodes species, and are surprisingly heavy for a beetle! I have been feeding them dog food, fruits and veggies. Their substrate is coconut fiber, and I recently added some sphagnum moss and some dead leaves. They seem to be pretty easy to breed! Here are some pictures.

Female
Male

Larva

Cage (The beetle in the bottom right corner is a E.caudiferus male, by the way)
They have been doing very good for me, and I hope to keep my colony going for many years to come! Hope you guys enjoy!

Sunday, February 22, 2015

My Coelocnemis sp

I caught these last summer while camping. They were found in and around a rotting cottonwood stump. They are slow, and have really long legs for a darkling beetle. They eat dog food, fruits and veggies, and have a fondness for carrots. The substrate is coconut fiber with some chunks of rotting cottonwood in it. I keep it dry with a moist corner. Sadly, I have not been able to get them to lay any eggs. Here are some pictures!

Male
Male and female pair, male on the left, female on the right.
Here's the cage.
A cool thing about this species is the golden hairs on the underside of the legs, you can't really see it in the pictures though. Females have much less hairs on the legs than the males, which how I have been sexing mine. Hope you guys enjoy!

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Eleodes hispilabris

These were my first pet beetles, I found one pregnant female one afternoon in my driveway. I put her in a cage with some coconut fiber, and two weeks later, I found many larva in the cage! I feed the adults and larva dog food, fruits and veggies. The substrate is coconut fiber with a little sand, or at least it was, it is now mostly frass! I keep them dry, with a moist corner. I do not have any pictures of the cage or the larva yet, but I will get around to taking some pics soon.  For now, here are some pictures of the adults.
                                           
My first female

Male and female pair, female on the left, male on the right
This species has proven very easy to breed. One female can lay TONS of eggs, and the larva and pupa have a high survival rate. Hope you guys enjoy!

Friday, February 20, 2015

P.americana nymphs

As promised, here are some pictures of the 3 nymphs I caught!




I decided to take them out of diapause, here is their new cage:


The substrate is coconut fiber with some long fibered sphagnum moss. I hope they do well for me, and I also hope that there is at least one male and one female in the group!
Hope you guys enjoyed, have a nice day! :)

My darkling beetle pupation setup

Everyone seems to have a different setup for this, so I thought I would show you guys mine.
Here it is!


It is a plastic parts box, with moist toilet paper in each cell (except for the ones with superworms or the cell on the top left corner, that is for rearing miscellaneous wild caught darkling beetle larva).
The larva, when ready to pupate shove aside the paper and pupate. In this picture you can see some pre-pupa and some pupa. I keep the toilet paper moist, not wet, to keep adequate humidity inside the cells. I am also careful to never spray the pupa, or else they will die.
Here is a pic of a fresh(ish) darkling beetle adult:


You can still see through the elytra at this point.
So, this is my setup. Hope you guys enjoyed! :)

Thursday, February 19, 2015

My P.saussurei are molting!!

So, I looked in the container today and found multiple shed skins in the cage! I dug around and found this.



This is the largest one in the cage. It looks like a mini adult! This is great, because the molting seems to suggest that they are doing very well under my care, I just can't wait 'till they are adults! :)
Hope you guys enjoy!

My Polyphaga aegyptiaca

I got 4 nymphs from kyle along with my P.saussurei. I only ordered 2, but he sent freebies! Their substrate consists of coconut fiber, sphagnum moss, and dead leaves. Their diet is mainly the dead leaves, but they will nibble on dog food, fruits and veggies. They do not burrow as much as my P.saussurei, I am going add more coconut fiber soon to see if it helps. They share the cage with 1 flathorn hisser male, and an Eleodes caudiferus male. They all seem to get along pretty well. Here are some pictures:
                                                                       
Nymphs



The cage
Now all I have to do is wait a few years until they mature! :) Hopefully I can keep them alive that long. They seem to be rather straightforward in their care requirements, so I think I should be okay.
Hope you guys enjoy!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Parcoblatta americana

I found a female subadult nymph in Boise Idaho near the Boise botanical gardens in March 2014. This seems to be the first documented proof of a native species of cockroach living in Idaho. This is the hardest to culture species of Parcoblatta. Hopefully, this strain will be one of the "easier" strains to culture. She is now an adult, she molted two weeks after I found her. I have been keeping the female in a 24 oz tupperware, with some coco-fiber and rotten wood chunks as the substrate. I have been feeding her dog food and carrots. She is in diapause right now, because it gets quite cold here during the winter, and most Parcoblatta species that live in areas where it gets cold in the winter need a diapause to survive. Also, keeping her cool prolongs her lifespan, hopefully long enough for me to find a male for her. Here are some pictures of her as an adult.




This January I caught 3 more nymphs, I will try to rear them to adulthood and breed them. I have been keeping them in diapause, but it is starting to warm up here so I might take them out of diapause soon. I will keep posted, and will try to get some pictures of the nymphs soon! :)

Coniontis sp

I caught these last year at a campground right next to the snake river. I have been keeping them in a medium sized container, with some "Zoo med jungle mix" and sand as the substrate. I keep the substrate dry with a moist corner, like all my darkling beetles. They eat dog food, fruits and veggies. They love to burrow, both as larva and as adults. They do not seem to release any defensive chemicals, which makes them decent for handling! Here are some pictures of them (they are not the best quality, because these guys are small and do not stay still for very long).



This one is having a refreshing drink, lol!
Here is the larva. It looks different than most darkling beetle larva
Here is the cage
Overall I think these are fun little darklings, different in looks and habits than most of my other darklings. Hope you guys enjoy! :)