Friday, April 29, 2016

My New Assassin Bugs!

I recently did a trade with Michael Dixon, the owner of Mike's House of A Thousand Legs, I gave him some roaches for a sexed pair of Black Corsairs, Melanolestes picipes.

They are very beautiful, and specialize in eating beetles, though they will accept other prey such as roaches in captivity. The female he gave me is a BEAST, and right after I housed her she ate two adult mealworm beetles and a adult male Parcoblatta americana. It does not seem like the male has eaten anything yet, he probably does not have as big of an appetite as the female. The female has actually tried to attack him a few times, though he seems to be adept at avoiding her and escaping her sharp proboscis.

They are housed in a small plastic container with a substrate of coconut fiber, long-fibred sphagnum moss, and fir bark pieces. There are two pieces of maple bark in the cage as hides, as well as some moss clumps. I am keeping them pretty moist.

Here are some pictures of the lovely pair:

Male


Female


The cage

These guys are really pretty, and I hope I can get the female to oviposit, I'd love to breed this species! I will keep you all posted on these guys' development.

Well, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)

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