Panchlora sp. "Guadeloupe" Adult Males!!!

Well, it's happened, two of my male Panchlora sp. "Guadeloupe" have matured! 😁

What's interesting is that the coloration on these is different than it is on the females, so they are sexually dimorphic! While females are a solid pale green, the males are more yellowish (similar in color to Panchlora sp. "Speckled" IMO), and have two reddish brown lines going down the top quarter of their wings. I don't think there are any pictures of the males of this species in existence yet (or if there are, I certainly haven't seen them), so I am more than happy to change that now! 😜

Here is one of the males:

A couple of my female nymphs look to be subadults getting ready to molt soon, so fingers crossed I'll get to breed these beauties soon! 😃 Will be nice to get yet another Panchlora species established in the US hobby!

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Larvae, Larvae, & More Larvae!!!

WOOHOO, after a mere 21 days of owning them, I successfully bred Alaus cf. lusciosus! The eggs of this species are actually quite large, so I can actually see them in the substrate, there are a TON in there! 😁 However it is worth noting that the larvae of this species are fully predatory and cannibalistic from L1, sooooooo I might not get the highest possible yield from this species as a result, but certainly enough for myself (and any interested parties who buy some from me in the next few weeks! 😉). 

I've isolated what larvae I've found so far into 2 oz deli cups filled with a thin layer of moist coconut fiber, and am feeding them pre-killed Compsodes schwarzi, which I've buried partially so the larvae can easily access them.

Here are some pictures of one of the adorable hatchlings:

I was surprised at the size these hatched out at, about 3 mms long! Doesn't seem that big, but the Pyrophorini click beetles I've been breeding have all hatched out at 1 mm or less, so kind of a big deal for me lol! Guess it makes sense considering how large Alaus are, and how big their eggs are too.

Unfortunately it does not look like I'll be breeding Alaus zunianus, my female has shown no signs of oviposition, I see no eggs in her substrate, thus I believe she is unmated. 😭 Makes sense considering she was collected in May, the very beginning of their activity season, and yet despite being kinda old she is not showing signs of aging, likely because she is not expending energy to make eggs, so she's gonna live longer as a result. Oh well, not much I can do, sucks because that is my dream Alaus, but I guess I'll have to try again some other time. At least the A.cf.lusciosus for sure were mated. 😅

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I also have found quite a few larvae in my Triorophus/Trimytis "Fort Stockton, TX" setup! 😀 Now, I technically don't know which species laid, I mean both of them could have if that Trimytis ended up being a female. But judging by how many larvae are in there, I WANT to say that some of them have to be Triorophus. The larvae of both these genera will probably look much the same at this stage, considering how closely related they are.

In any case, this is the first time I've heard of someone breeding an Edrotinid, so here are some notes on the larvae. They are soft bodied and pale, similar to many other Pimeliinae larvae, and actually seem to be communal and not too cannibalistic, otherwise they'd have been eating each other by now. They are going to town on the dog food in there though, and I have added some oak leaf litter to the substrate too, which they are either ignoring or eating very slowly. They are most numerous in the driest part of the substrate, interestingly enough.

Here are some pictures of a few of them:

Cute little larvae for sure, will be interesting to see what they mature into, Triorophus, Trimytis, or both? Will keep you all updated on them, and will try to get some pictures of them when they are larger too!

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Lastly, no pics since I've technically bred these species before, but I found larvae in both my Eleodes hispilabris "South Texas Race" and Eleodes obscura glabriuscula enclosures! 😁 Happy to have gotten offspring from these two species, hopefully they grow well for me! Now to just get larvae from my E.debilis and E.goryi...

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, I hope you all enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you next time! 😉

Beetles From Beast Pets!!!

Well, I've started yet another darkling beetle breeding project, this time featuring an uncommon species of death feigning beetle that I've seldom seen in the hobby, and never seen in person! 😁 Big thanks to Shawn Kramer of Beast Pets for sending me these beauties, be sure to check his pet shop out if you live in or near the San Diego area in California!

Let's start this post off with the species he sent me that I've never kept before, Asbolus mexicanus mexicanus! This species is uncommon in culture, and this is one of two subspecies found in the US, with Bugguide listing two subspecies in the US; A.m.angularis in CA-AZ & Baja, A.m.mexicanus in NM-TX & adjacent Mexico. Shawn says these were collected in TX, which makes them A.m.mexicanus. My friend Alan Jeon has kept this species before and even accidentally got larvae from them, though he ended up with just two larva due to cannibalism. But the point remains that they seem to be just as easy to breed as any other Cryptoglossini species, so I figured I'd try it out!

I have my adults in a well ventilated container filled with a sand substrate, with the tiniest bit of coconut fiber and crushed leaf litter mixed in. For hides I am using cardboard rolls and driftwood. I'll be keeping them at around 75F, and will keep a third of the substrate moist, the rest bone dry. Their staple diet will be dog food.

Here are some pics of this uncommonly sighted or kept species:

I love the morphology and long legs on this species, really neat! Their exoskeleton texture is pretty matte, and their legs are both heavily pitted and the tarsi are covered in hairs. Quite a bit of clay or mud or something is stuck to their legs currently, but hopefully after a while on a sand substrate they will get cleaned up.

I hope I get some offspring from them this year, fingers crossed it's not too late in the breeding season. If it is though I should hopefully be able to coax some offspring from them in the spring after a mild diapause.

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Shawn also sent me a few Asbolus laevis in the hopes of breeding those too. I have gotten no offspring from mine so far, and I suspect my remaining three are males sadly. So it was nice of Shawn to send me some more adults, which I've tossed in with the others, fingers crossed I get offspring now!

Here are some pics of them, just because:

Interestingly these ones are all smaller than the ones I got from Bugsincyberspace last year, and have a slightly different shape to them too, their elytra and abdomens taper off weirdly... Perhaps different locales have different morphology.

Fingers crossed I now get some offspring from these, @loganlovesbugs on Instagram has bred them, and she seems to have been keeping them the usual way people keep and breed Cryptoglossini. So they can definitely be bred, I just think I either previously got unlucky with my sex ratio, or haven't been keeping them warm enough (something I'm fixing now).

Well, that's gonna do it for today, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉