Saturday, March 25, 2017

My New Anallacta methanoides Ootheca! (Edited)

I just got an ootheca (2 actually, though one sadly got crushed during the trip over here), of this lovely species from a good friend of mine, Sebastien Marcaillou, I'm very happy to have an ootheca from this unique species, and I'm really hoping that I can help to establish them in culture in the US again, as apparently all the other colonies here have died out.

I have it housed in a small sized plastic container with coconut fiber as the substrate, which I am trying to keep semi-moist, and have bark pieces and dead leaves as hides. I will be feeding the resulting nymphs, (should I get any) dog food and veggies.

Here are some pictures of the ootheca:




And some pics of the enclosure





Really hoping that the ootheca will hatch and that the nymphs will do well for me, I would really love for this species to be established in the US hobby again, it's such a unique and interesting Ectobiid!

Well, that's going to be it for this post, I hope you guys enjoyed, it's very rare that I post two days in a row, but I really didn't want to wait any longer to share this great news! Anyways, I'll see you all next time! :)

EDIT: Well unfortunately this ooth turned out to be a dud, after a few hours of being in a moist enclosure the seam down the middle loosened up and revealed that the insides were black and rotten. :(

Don't know if it died during shipping or if it was just an infertile ooth, either way I won't be getting any nymphs from it unfortunately. Oh well, will just have to try again later I suppose, just goes to show, don't judge an ooth by it's outer appearance, because while it may look healthy, it could be dead inside! (Like all my Dorylaea orini ooths....).

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on the acquisition man! :) Keeping my fingers crossed that it'll hatch! Any word on why the other's cultures crashed, are they supposed to be a tough species?

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    1. Thanks! :) I hope they hatch too, really want to establish this species in US culture again!

      From what I've heard they aren't terribly difficult to breed, and in fact under the right conditions, can breed like pests. It's just that, like other Ectobiids, they don't handle lapses in care well, so I'm assuming that's what killed most of the cultures here, like when Alan and Kyle went to FL or AZ, I think that's when they lost theirs, and Orin moved recently too and I think lost his. Could be wrong though, that's just what I assumed...

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