Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Small Coniontis & Porcellio bolivari Updates!

My Coniontis sp. "CA" are doing very well, the larvae have all grown quite a bit, I think some of them will be ready to pupate soon! 😊 My females seem to have started laying a second wave of eggs too, as I'm seeing tiny larvae in the cage now. So, continuing a conversation I had with AlexW from the fine blog, Splendid Unknowns, I'm relatively sure we can conclude that female Coniontis do regenerate eggs after laying all the ones in their ovaries. There was a break in between the two egg laying waves after all, they definitely weren't just laying them the whole time.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures of an adult eating a dead leaf:



I just threw these dead leaves in there the other day, as they had eaten all of the leaf litter I put in the cage originally, and had been without some for a couple weeks. They went nuts for these new leaves, the adults especially, so they definitely seem to be a favorite of this genus! 🙂

My Porcellio bolivari are doing very well, and growing rather fast! Most of them have probably reached sexual maturity by now, so I'm hoping I'll see some gravid females soon! 😁 If I do, I may isolate them, to avoid any stress from males trying to mate with them or territorial disputes. For six isopods, their current enclosure should be adequate, but I'm not taking any chances with these rarities!

Here are a couple pictures I took of two females the other day:



The photos look a bit too bright from the flash in my opinion, but oh well.

Anyway, that's going to do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all next time! 😉

2 comments:

  1. How many CA Coniontis beetles do you have, and approximately how many larvae do you have? If the proportion of larvae is much greater than 10 per female (assuming each female can hold 10 mega-eggs), we can probably conclude quite safely that the darkling females can regenerate their eggs.

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    1. I have 10 adult beetles, no idea how much larvae though, I'll try to get a count soon. I also have no idea how to sex the adults, since they are all pretty much the same size and I can't see any noticeable differences between them...

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