Hopefully all you guys enjoyed yourselves, I just chilled with my family and ate some pizza, so I had a pretty good time.
Firstly, upon request, I'll give you guys some updates on my Archimandrita tessellata. :)
Well, these guys have been doing alright. A while back, I found an aborted ootheca from my female, which I knew wasn't good. Me and a friend came to the conclusion that it must be from the relatively low temperature in my house(usually 68-72), and that even though it's within their required temp range, they might just be a roach that needs higher temperatures to reproduce even though they still can live and grow at lower temperatures. Something more recent that has happened with them is the maturation of another pair, giving me a total of four adults(two males, two females). Although I'm happy about them maturing, I'm not all that happy that they both ended up with deformed wings and that one lost a leg somehow. :( I'm not sure why, but the female acts as if it can't hold its abdomen up and it pulsates rapidly when being held, so I'm a bit concerned about that. One other thing is that my very odd nymph finally molted. I call this particular one "very odd" because it's body is much narrower and shorter than any of the others and it has only molted this one time since I've had it.
Here's a pic of the two new adults and the freshly molted "odd" nymph.
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| New adult male and female A.tessellata |
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| Freshly molted "odd" A.tessellata nymph |
For me, this year has been remarkable, arthropod wise. Before the start of 2016, I had only kept a few species of mantids, a single G.oblongonota, and a couple darkling beetles. I hadn't bred or kept a colony of anything, wasn't a member of any type of forum, didn't have my own Facebook account, and obviously hadn't even created this blog yet! At the moment the clock struck midnight, 2016 had passed, and 2017 had entered, things were MUCH different! I now owned a total of forty two different species of arthropods, I had a number of colonies, I had bred ten different arthropods, was a member of four different forums(Arachnoboards, Allpet roaches forum, Beetle forum, and Mantid forum), had my own Facebook account(Yay! LOL), and the biggest shocker, I had created my own blog!!! LOL
Here's a picture of my setup at the end of 2016.
If I was able to grow this much as an arthropod hobbyist in one measly year, I can't think of what 2017 has in store for me!
To a great, arthropod-packed new year, good bye everyone!!! :D
Ooh, they are rather deformed aren't they? The fact that one lost a leg in the process makes me wonder if low humidity is the culprit, as arthropods often lose body parts when molting in dry conditions.
ReplyDeleteMy collection also grew CONSIDERABLY this year, 2016 seems to have been a rather good year for bugs for both of us. :) Here's hoping 2017 is even better!
Interesting, the top layer of the substrate does dry out pretty quickly in their enclosure. That very well may be the culprit, the substrate in many of my enclosures seem to be drying out extremely fast since the heat in my house has been turned on for winter. Not sure what to do because the ventilation seems to be too high when the heat is drying everything out in winter, but if I lessen the ventilation then stuff starts getting moldy in the muggy and steamy Summer months. :(
DeleteI have noticed that! LOL Seems that it has, 2017 is bound to be better, can't wait to get to acquiring some of the awesome new stuff Kyle's making available!
Yeah, sounds like the lack of humidity is the problem then. Can you put plastic food wrap or something like that over some of the vents to keep some the humidity in, maybe put tape over it or something? Then you can remove it when it gets warmer and more humid.
DeleteI just put some tape over about half of the vents, and mixed up/moistened the substrates. With the covering of the vents, the containers seem to be retaining humidity much better now. :)
DeleteWow. And I thought I had a lot of bins! I love following your blog (and I'm super jealous of your Christmas haul). Thanks for sharing your adventures in bugs. Looking forward to seeing what 2017 has in store for you! - Axolotl from roachforum.com
ReplyDeleteHaha, yeah, the collection takes up a good portion of the room! LOL Thank you! :) I truly love sharing about my arthropods and am glad people enjoy my posts! Something tells me a lot of isopods, rare roaches, and some uncommonly kept inverts, but we'll see. ;) BTW thanks for letting me know who you were, I get a little creeped out sometimes when anonymous people comment on here. LOL
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