Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Good and the Bad

So my package from Reign of invertebrates arrived, and all the roaches came safe and sound! :) The isopods however, are a different story. Here is what I got:

12 Gyna lurida nymphs
4 Gromphadorhina "portentosa"
3 Live Trichorhina tomentosa

As you can see, I got much less isopods than I was supposed to get, almost all of them arrived dead. However, this species is parthenogenic, so three is enough to start a colony. :) It appears that isopods don't have a great survival rate in shipping, especially in the winter. In the end I am happy with my prize, and I am very excited to have two new species in my collection!

Now let's move on to some pretty bad news. Unfortunately, my laptop is broken. The fan inside has broken and the computer won't turn on. This means that I may not be uploading some pictures for a while until my laptop is fixed or we find a new computer. :( So there may be a lack of photos for a bit, which kinda sucks, but I can still give you all status updates.

Hope you guys enjoyed, and I will see you all next time! :)

Monday, February 22, 2016

My Prize Has Shipped!

The prize that I won from the contest that Reign of invertebrates held has shipped! For those who did not read my previous post about the subject, the prize is:

A dozen mixed Gyna lurida
A Trichorhina tomentosa colony of 24
And 4 Madagascan hissing cockroaches, (Probably hybrids).

I am very excited and I can't wait until they come! If all goes well they should be here Wednesday, I will let you guys know how it goes!

Until then, I hope you guys liked this little update, and I will see you next time! :)

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Parcoblatta Maturation Update!

Well, all my Parcoblatta have been doing splendidly! Even the ones that were dying, like the Parcoblatta bolliana and Parcoblatta unknown "fulvescens like caudelli" are doing better, they have both stopped dying and some are starting to mature! The point of this update is to talk about the Parcoblatta that are are maturing.

First let's talk about my Parcoblatta virginica. They are all doing well, and most of them have gotten close to maturing. One of them matured into an adult female a couple of weeks ago, I've been too lazy to try to get some pictures of her, but I finally got around to it, so here they are!

Adult female P.virginica


She is crazy fast, and can climb, so it was hard to get some pictures of her. I think one of the other nymphs is a subadult male, so she should have someone to mate with soon!

My Parcoblatta bolliana are doing well, they were dying off but I increased substrate depth and mixed in some ZooMed Jungle-Mix, which is a blend of fir bark and peat moss, with my coconut fiber. This seems to have made the ecosystem in the cage more rich, the roaches are doing much better than before and they are all getting close to adulthood. There are two subadult males in the enclosure, and one of the females had matured! 

Here are some pictures of her:

Adult female P.bolliana


If you look closely, you can see the tiny wing buds on this female. It looks like I will be breeding this species successfully, which makes me very happy! This is a very cute Parcoblatta, and I would hate to lose it.

Finally, my Parcoblatta americana have been doing well without a diapause, and I am now seeing some F1 adults in the cage! I am very happy this strain has done well in captivity, most strains of this species don't. 

Here are some pictures of the adults:

Adult male P.americana



Adult female P.americana


Like the P.bolliana, P.americana females have tiny wingbuds as well. 

All of my Parcoblatta seem to be doing very well, I think I can safely say I am pretty decent at rearing this genus. Hopefully I will be getting more this year, I would love to one day own all of the Parcoblatta species.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed, again suggestions for post topics are welcome, and I will see you all next time! :)

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Therea regularis Update

Here is a little update on my orange domino roaches, Therea regularis. My adult male is still alive, but is showing signs of aging. His elytra are turning a blueish black rather than pure black, which seems to be an indicator of old age. The other 4 nymphs are doing well and are growing, some are getting close to adulthood!

Here are some pictures of them:

Adult male



Subadult male


I really hope more mature soon, I really want to breed this species successfully!

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Harpalus pensylvanicus

A few years ago I bred some Harpalus pensylvanicus, and I thought I would share how I did it here. I have written an article for Invertebrates Magazine about these guys, so be sure to check it out! (I.M, Vol 15, Issue 1).

I kept them in a small Tupperware, with moist coco fiber as the substrate. I did not give them much in the way of decor, these guys like to burrow anyway. I did give them a milk cap filled with wet toilet paper, as a water bowl. After a few weeks, I noticed a couple of eggs at the bottom of the container.

A quick search through the substrate revealed a few more eggs. I went to replace the toilet paper in the milk cap, and found many eggs in the folds of the paper. They seemed to like laying their eggs in the wet toilet paper more than the substrate. I removed the eggs and put them in their own container, and after roughly a week, I found tiny larva crawling around.

The larva were kept in small containers filled with moist sand as the substrate. They were fed pre-killed Eleodes larva. They did not have a high survival rate, and needed to be fed fresh food every other day, or else they would start dying.

After a while, I started running out of food for them, so I released all but three large larva. Only one of them pupated, but it soon died of unknown reasons.
So I was unable to rear any to adulthood, but it was still a fun experience. Here are some pictures of them!

Adult

Small larva (next to a pre-killed Eleodes hispilabris larva)

Large larva
Pupa

Well, it was an unsuccessful attempt, but a fun one! Anyway that's gonna be it for today, hope you guys enjoyed! :)

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Polyphaga aegyptiaca Update

Here is an update on my Polyphaga aegyptiaca! They are still laying oothecae prolifically, and my male nymph is getting close to maturing! Whenever I look at my females they are always holding a ootheca, these girls lay a LOT of eggcases! Besides that, not much is going on with these guys.

Here are some pictures I took of them today:







This species is very neat, and hopefully in a few months I will see babies crawling all over the enclosure!

Thank you guys for viewing, and I wish you all a happy Valentine's day! :)

Friday, February 12, 2016

Polyphaga saussurei Update

Upon request, I am doing an update on these guys. They are growing, very slowly. An interesting observation I have made is that they all have nearly caught up to each other in terms of growth, they are almost all the same size.

These guys do not eat much dog food, but they have been eating a lot of dead leaves! I am going to try to be smart this year and bag a bunch of dead leaves before it gets warm so I will have some for the summer.

Here are some pictures of these guys:









These guys are still not even half way grown, so it will probably be another year or so until they start to mature. I can't wait until then! :)

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I will see you all next time!

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Chorisoneura texensis Update

One of my nymphs in the communal setup has matured! I believe it is a male, though I could be wrong. Hopefully the others will follow, and I can start to try breeding this species.

Here are some pictures of the cutie:






Love these guys, so far the communal setup seems to be doing as well as the separate setups are, all 6 of my C.texensis are alive and healthy!

I hope you guys enjoy this post, see you all soon! :)

Monday, February 8, 2016

Tenebrio obscurus Update!

Good news! Most of the mealworms have pupated, and some have turned into adults already! And, they are in fact Tenebrio obscurus! The enlarged front legs and the darker color are characteristic of this species. Now I have both of the commonly kept Tenebrio, and this species was free!

Here are some pictures of the adults:










I am very glad these turned out to be T.obscurus, and I look forward to breeding this species!

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, I will see you all next time! :)