Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Fresh Blattodean Babies and Adults!

Hey, Hey, Hey! :)
I'm back with my first post in a couple weeks, hope you guys didn't miss me too much. ;)
I've got a very good amount of updates stacked up, which I'll share primarily in this post, but also in my next two.
I'll start off with the one I'm most excited about.....the hatching of my largest Eurycotis lixa ootheca! I'm tempted to say this hatch was almost miraculous in the sense that it took a WHILE after the normal hatching time, I only had one other ootheca hatch which only gave me four rather messed up looking nymphs and this one gave me fifteen perfect nymphs, and it was able to endure temps in nearly the mid 60s at times!
Here's some pics of the little suckers!

First instar E.lixa nymphs
With these new nymphs, I have regained hope in keeping this rare and stunning species in my collection, now I've just gotta make sure they make it to adulthood(which should be pretty easy considering how hardy they are)! I'm really loving their maroon coloration, yellowish orange legs, and transparent edges of the pronotum and wing buds. I'm keeping my lil guys in a 30 oz. deli cup with some crumbled up, moist paper towel for them to both obtain their moisture needs from and take refuge in.
Now, I also have a couple maturation updates.
I'll start with the(IMO) more intriguing one. So I was dumping my E.sinensis "White Eye" substrate into a new enclosure that I was transferring them into when I noticed a few lumps in the remaining substrate. Uncovering the lumps, I was shocked to find two adult males! I hadn't really went through the substrate in a while, but they probably matured no more than a couple days earlier.
Here's a few photos of these beautiful guys!





E.sinensis "White Eye" adult males
Their antennae tripled in length and their eyes got truly huge since their molt to adulthood! I also now have two adult pairs so I should be getting tons of oothecae soon!
The other maturation update I wanted to share was on my Parcoblatta pennsylvanica. Three more sub-adult nymphs molted in adult males along with a female. One of the males turned out a very nice black color and I'm assuming that the female already mated with at least one of the males as it already seems to be gravid.
Here are some pics of a couple of the new adults!
Black-form adult male P.pennsylvanica



Adult female P.pennsylvanica
I'm now only waiting on two more sub-adult nymphs to mature, both of which seem to male, which is unfortunate since it means I'll only have one female. Surprisingly, my oldest adult male already passed away, these guys have truly miniscule adult lifespans, he didn't even make it a month!
That'll rap up this post, be sure to watch out for my remaining updates in my next two and have a goodnight everyone! :)

7 comments:

  1. Congrats on the E.lixa ootheca hatching, hope the nymphs do well and end up breeding for you! :)

    Man that E.sinensis male looks so cool, love the white eyes on it!

    Funny, I just had a male P.pennsylvanica male mature, he was apparently a stowaway in my P.lata culture, unfortunately I have no females for him. Hope yours end up breeding for you!

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    1. Thanks, definitely hoping so!

      Thanks, I agree, his eyes are crazy! I find it pretty odd that these guys look virtually identical to adult male A.bolliana, while being in a different genus.

      I saw your post on him, quite a shame that he doesn't have a mate. :( Maybe when these guys reproduce, we can do some trading. ;)

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    2. I know, the males of E.sinensis and A.bolliana look so similar, however there is quite a difference between the females.

      Yeah, a shame indeed. I may trade for some when you have them available, though I'm way more interested in those Meracantha contracta you have. How are they doing BTW?

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    3. Aw man, thanks so much for making me check, just noticed that one's created a pupal chamber and is a pre-pupa and one of them has already molted into a pupa!

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    4. Awesome, I wanna see pics! :D Hope they eclose properly for you!

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    5. I'll send you some, but the rest of the world will have to wait until my next couple blog post(which I'll be publishing after this Thursday when I take my midterms.)

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