Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Domino Roach Update!

After checking on my Therea today I found that one of my Domino roaches, Therea petiveriana, had matured! It is a beautiful adult female, and my first adult T.petiveriana ever! Hopefully the others will be maturing soon, particularly a male to mate with her.

Here are some pictures of her:






I can't wait to breed these, Therea petiveriana is the biggest Therea species in the hobby!

Anyway that's it for today, hope you guys enjoyed this short post, and I'll see you all next time, (hopefully with some new roaches)! :)

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Egg Layers and Eggs Hatching!

My Pseudomops septentionalis have been doing kind of poorly, I had three adults, two females and one male. None of the oothecae the females have been laying have hatched, and I fear they may all be infertile. However, the male was the last to mature, so the earlier oothecae are all infertile but some of the more recently laid oothecae may be fertile, still they should have hatched by now. One of the females died a few days ago, after a long life of almost eight months, which is quite a while for this species.

However, I will hopefully be getting a couple more from a friend soon, a adult pair to be exact. Hopefully those added individuals will be able to rejuvenate my colony!

Here are some pictures of the pair I have left:

Female


Male


And here's a picture of one of the ootheca:


Hopefully some oothecae will hatch, I'll keep you guys updated.

So my African bullet roaches have been doing very well, and the male has matured, so I now have an adult pair! They have made a little tunnel system under the bark slab in their enclosure, which is quite fascinating! The Sinella curviseta springtails in the enclosure have been doing extremely well, and there are TONS of them crawling around, which is good to see.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the adult male:




I'm really hoping these will reproduce for me, they seem like such a cool little species!

I was checking on my Melanolestes picipes eggs today, and found that two of them had hatched! I have supplied small pieces of eggcarton for them to hide under, and I am offering them hatchling Parcoblatta americana, hopefully they will eat them.

Here are a couple of pictures of one of the nymphs:



So cute, am I right? Hopefully they will do well for me, they are such colorful little things!

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

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Isopods, Isopod Mimics, & A Cool Millipede Species!

So, lately a few orange individuals have been popping up in my Oniscus asellus colony, they aren't a bright orange, but with time and selective breeding I hope the morph will gain a more bright coloration.

Here are some pictures of them:




This one is not so orange, but definitely lighter than the normal looking ones
With any luck I will be able to isolate this morph, would be pretty cool if the orange color intensified in future generations!

My Corydidarum pygmaea have been doing very well, unfortunately one of my males has matured. Now you would think that would be a good thing, however my females are nowhere near maturation, and the males are pretty short lived... that presents a bit of a problem. I knew this would happen, it's a problem that other roach keepers have experienced. I'll need to move my females to a much warmer area, so they will mature much faster, and keep the males where they are.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the male and my largest female:

Adult male





Female nymph






Hopefully I can get at least one of my females to mature within the male's short lifespan, I really want to be successful in breeding this species, it is just so unique!

And lastly, I have collected a few bristly millipedes, Polyxenus sp., in my backyard. They like to accumulate on my wooden fence, a strange habit. Another strange aspect of these millipedes is their ability to climb smooth surfaces. No, they are not climbing onto tiny particles on the sides of the containers, they can truly climb up glass and other smooth surfaces.

I am keeping them in a small container filled with sand and coconut fiber, with pieces of bark and dead leaves as hides and/or food. I am also trying to feed them dog food, and will try carrots sometime soon. I will be keeping them semi-moist, as I have always found them in pretty dry areas.

Here are a couple of pictures of them, they are pretty crappy pics but hey, these guys are only about 2 mm long!



Hopefully I will be able to breed these, and maybe get some better pictures too.

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

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Some Roach Stuff, As Well As A Embaphion Update!

Here are a few updates on some of my roaches, and one small update on one of my darkling beetle species, I hope you all enjoy!

My Gyna lurida nymphs have been slowly growing, and after checking the cage yesterday I found out that one male matured! He is a beauty, I love the patterning on him! Hopefully some females will mature soon so he can mate.

Here are some pictures of him:







Really glad I have this species, I'll have to get more Gyna species in the future!

My Paranauphoeta discoidalis female matured about a month ago, though I haven't tried photographing her at all. Wish I had taken a picture of her as a nymph, the nymphs of this species are very pretty looking. Oh well, hopefully she will have nymphs of her own soon, then I can take as many pictures of them as I want. My male might be getting old, he seems to be moving slower than the female. Hopefully he was still fertile enough to mate with her.

Here are some pictures of them:

Female





The happy couple (Male on right and bottom)

Can't wait until my female gives birth, I will let you guys know when that happens.

The four Dorylaea orini nymphs I got have been doing very well, and two of them have molted into what I am hoping is the subadult stage. The pink tropical springtails (Sinella curviseta) that I added to their enclosure have also been doing very well, and may be the solution to my mite problems!

Anyway, back to the roaches, here are some pictures of one of the nymphs:






Hopefully in a few months I will have adults, I am very excited to have the chance to breed this species!

Now next week I was supposed to get a shipment of new roaches, however it has been postponed to the week after that, so it will be a short while until I get them still. Once they come I'll definitely post about them, these are gonna be a cool new addition to the US roach hobby! :)

Apparently Embaphion muricatum pupa only take a few weeks to eclose, which is faster than many darkling beetles I have bred. Today I found an adult in one of my pupa enclosures, I quickly removed it and put it in a well ventilated cage, too much humidity can quickly kill adults. I believe this one is a female due to the size, I could be wrong though.

Here are some pictures of it while is still teneral:



Another one of my pupas looks like it will mature soon:


Can't wait until these guys start breeding, I would love to spread these around the hobby more.

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