Friday, September 18, 2015

Egypt Sand Roach Update

My Polyphaga aegyptiaca sub-adult female matured! Now I have a adult male and female pair, so I will hopefully be seeing ooths in the cage soon! Here are some pictures I took of her!





Glad to finally be able to breed this species, I hope you guys enjoyed this short post! :)

Dermestid Beetles!

Found almost a dozen dermestid beetle larva behind my cat's food bowl, (she spills a lot of food and there was a buildup of old cat food pieces behind the bowl). I have put them in a small Tupperware with a thin layer of dry coconut fiber as the substrate, and I have a lot of cat food, insect sheds, and dead insects inside as food. They like the insect matter better than the cat food, and they are growing fast! Hopefully I can successfully rear and breed them, they would make a great clean up crew in my roach cages. Here are some pics!




The cage
Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the post, and I'll see you later! :)

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Another Click Beetle Project

I caught a few Aeolus sp this week, and I am going to try to breed them! I have kept this species before, with less than satisfying results. They will lay eggs in moist coconut fiber, and the hatchling larva are tiny. However, I had assumed that they were the normal wireworm type, and that they could peacefully co-exist with each other. Turns out, these guys are like mini Alaus sp larva, and are highly predatory and cannibalistic. After a few months, I was left with one big, fat larva that eventually pupated and matured into an adult. This time, I plan on separating the larva and will feed them tiny mealworms or fungus gnat larva, etc. I found two adults and one nearly mature larva, I will try to find some more this week. Here are some pics!

Adults


Larva

Hopefully this attempt will be successful! Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed! :)

Monday, September 14, 2015

Crickets, Crickets, And More Crickets!

Here's a couple of cricket updates, and a new species of cricket in my collection! To start things off, my two smallest Jerusalem crickets have molted, (at least the smallest one did), and have started to eat! So far they have been too timid to take on live prey, but they sure seem to like cat food. Here are some pics of one of them, as you an see it has a minor segment deformation, which does not seem to affect its health at all.




Secondly, here's an update on my Ceuthophilus cf. agassizii. There is a bit of cannibalism between my adults even though they have plenty of food, so I have less than I would like. However, the second generation (or F2), has begun, and I am seeing lots of new hatchlings in the cage! Here are some pics of an adult female and a tiny nymph.









And, lastly but not least, I caught a couple of field cricket nymphs, (Gryllus sp) today! They are both males, but I'll try to catch more before it gets too cold, hopefully I can catch some females. I have them in a round container with about an inch of coconut fiber and sphagnum moss as the substrate, some toilet paper roll pieces as hides, and some dead leaves for additional food/hides. I'll be feeding them cat food, fruits and veggies, the usual food choices. Anyway, here are some pics!




The cage
Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you later! :)