Coming of Age

Hello and welcome. 🙂

I'm a broken record at this point, but heeeeeere's the first new post in nearly HalF A yEaR!!! 😶 The usual troubles (stress from school) have partially been to blame once again, but there's also been a silver lining for All About Arthropods. In my time away, I have been able to really home in on kicking-out content for the Facebook page and Instagram (both of which can be found under the "All About Arthropods Elsewhere" portion of the blog). Now, hearing this in regards to the Facebook page may surprise some of you. For the vast majority of the page's history, it has exclusively been used to share new posts from this blog. However, as of late last year, I made the decision to turn it into the melting pot for all of my arthropod exploits (just because it's the most versatile platform) and the results have been nothing except positive. 😊 That's not where the announcements end! I've additionally created the baselines for my very own YouTube channel that I plan to release soon and have already managed to download some quality video-editing software . I hope to figure out the software enough in the upcoming weeks to produce my first video and subsequently trigger the channel to go public. So, overall, lots of exciting things going on here!!! What......what's that I hear? You haven't just came here to read about news and excuses? You want an actual blog post??? Well, the good news for you is that's exactly what you'll get. On that note, let's take a well-overdue jump back into things with a growth update on the rhino of the roach world. 🙂

I only just realized it while typing this up, but I haven't posted about my Macropanesthia rhinoceros since 2018! 😮 Unfortunately I didn't do the best at keeping records on them or anything like that. What I do know, howbeit, is that they did both molt the same number of times since you last saw them and it was done on either 3 or 4 occasions. The female is still in its last instar as a nymph (sub-adult), but the male has broke free of that old life and matured into a truly magnificent adult! 😃 The sheer size/weight on these is just as remarkable as many have vouched and, as a cockroach enthusiast, it's honestly a real life dream to be able to experience one in the flesh! Even better yet, I was able to capture the moments right after its coming of age on camera! I'm still blown away by the fact that he decided to undergo a molt on the one day of the week that I check on him and his counterpart, but I guess it was simply meant to be. 😅 Of course, words are nothing quite like pictures with these sorts of things. 😛

*Heaven Sounds*

Freshly-molted adult male

Adult male

Adult male and sub-adult female size comparison

Burrowing buddies

Frass

I bet you didn't think you'd see some roach excrement today! Its size is simply otherworldly though; the largest of any roach I've come across in captivity. 😯 I just figured it would be worth including since I know I wouldn't expect that kind of object to come out of a mouse-sized animal. 😅 Aaaaanyways, I hope you guys all took pleasure in digesting some more content on the hobby's king of cockroaches! The next breaking updates on them will definitely be relayed faster. With that said, I'll meet you right where I always do - next post. 🙂