Hisserless with a Topping of Mastigogone

Hello and welcome. 🙂

This post is about half story and half explanation. There will be a couple species that you never saw on my blog that you won't for a long time, possible ever, and a couple that you have saw that you may and may not see again. Although some notable arthropods have left my collection due to husbandry errors (which I will make a separate post about), that is not the case for any mentioned in this post. With that said, here we go. ⬇️

Right after we moved into our new house (just under two years ago), I was lucky enough to nab clean (non-hybrid) starter colonies of both Gromphadorhina grandidieri, the Tiger Hisser, and Gromphadorhina oblongonota, the Wide-Horn Hisser. Both were GORGEOUS species, particularly the grandidieri, although the group of oblongonota did contain some high-red individuals. The female Wide-Horns all reached a massive size, but only one or two males ever really grew to match the size of the "old man". The Tigers were the only one of the two species to give birth for me, which I believe they did twice. 

Now I've been allergic to roaches for a while now, particularly to hissers. Over time, I realized that the allergies were to the point where I wasn't even enjoying opening up their enclosures anymore. So after I confirmed that one of my best roacher friends was good with taking them off my hands, I knew the best decision was to send them off. Aaaand when I do things, I typically go all in, thus I figured I'd do away with my Elliptorhina laevigata as well. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any pictures of the G.oblongonota before I sent them on their way, but I made sure to get some of the other species!

Elliptorhina laevigata

Adult male(s)

Freshly-molted adult male

Adult females

Large nymph(s)

Gromphadorhina grandidieri

Adult male

Adult female(s)

Large nymph

Small nymphs

Individuals attempting to hide

Gromphadorhina grandidieri/Elliptorhina laevigata

Adult male comparison (G.grandidieri left, E.laevigata right)

Adult male comparison (E.laevigata left, G.grandidieri right)

Now onto the Vinegaroons. You guys all have to remember my beloved "Mastigoproctus giganteus" from posts of old. Well.....those may not have actually been M.giganteus. There was a revision of the genus last year that separated giganteus into seven total species, three of which are in the U.S, M.giganteus, M.tohono, and M.floridanus. If you'd like to learn more about that, you can read up on it right here (thanks to Invertebrate Dude for the link!). Anyways, this means that I really could have had any of those three species in my possession. In accordance with this revelation, I have changed all their post labels to a simple "Mastigoproctus sp.".

With that clarified, the reason they were included in this post is that they're sadly now only a memory. The female was the first to pass (right around January 1st of last year) and the male went nearly a year later. They were wild-caught adults, so who knows exactly how long they had been going before they were put into my hands. If you never got a chance to see them, you can do so here and here. Vinegaroons certainly provide a unique and pleasureful arthropod-keeping experience, so you can bet this won't be the last you'll be seeing of their kind on this blog. 🙂

I hope you all enjoyed this post and hopefully we can get to some more exciting subjects next time around! I'll see you right where I always do - next post!

New Roaches from Spencer!

Hey again everyone! Hope you all are doing well!
I got some very cool new roaches last week from Spencer Thornton AKA Sleepy Lemur on the forums. I ordered seven Blaberus craniifer "Orin McMonigle"nymphs, eight Blaberus craniifer "UCR"nymphs, ten small Elliptorhina laevigata nymphs. However, I received sixteen B.craniifer "Orin McMonigle"nymphs, twelve B.craniifer "UCR"nymphs, fourteen small E.laevigata nymphs, AND nine free Diploptera punctata(three adults, five large nymphs, and one medium-sized nymph!) :D I was obviously beyond pleased with what I received, in fact, it has to be the most generously packed box that I have received from anyone on or off the forums! Also forgot to mention that despite the package getting shipped Monday and unfortunately having to get held over Thanksgiving, I only received one DOA(that being a very small E.laevigata nymph who was preparing for a molt, and apparently got handled a bit too roughly by the post office), which is a testament to Spencer's packing job.
But that's enough with the review, I'm pretty sure you guys want to see some pics and such of the roaches right?
First, the B.craniifer "Orin McMonigle" are mostly medium/large nymphs, but there are also a couple very small 2nd-3rd instar nymphs. With the B.craniifer "UCR", I received exclusively medium/large nymphs. I'm keeping both strains in sixteen quart plastic containers( which I will be adding ventilation holes to very soon)with about two inches of moist coconut fiber as the substrate. I will also be adding a piece of bark or egg crate to their enclosures for them to molt to adults from.
Here are some pictures of the two strains and their enclosures!

Medium/Large B.craniifer "Orin McMonigle" nymphs

Medium/Large B.craniifer "Orin McMonigle" nymph burrowing into substrate

Handling medium/large B.craniifer "Orin McMonigle" nymph

Handling very small B.craniifer "Orin McMonigle" nymph

Sixteen B.craniifer "Orin McMonigle" nymphs

B.craniifer "UCR" nymphs

Handling B.craniifer "UCR" nymphs

B.craniifer "UCR" nymphs coming out of substrate

Twelve B.craniifer "UCR" nymphs

B.craniifer enclosure(note that I only took pics of one since they're exactly the same)

Even though this is a common species in the hobby and very easy to care for, I still am very happy to have acquired this striking(as adults) species!
Second, all of my E.laevigata are pretty small, although a couple of them I'd consider very small, and a couple are almost medium-sized. I'm keeping them in a thirty two quart Sterilite gasket box container, with two 2.5 inch ventilation holes on each end. I have them on a substrate of dry coconut fiber(I still keep one corner moist) with a bit of coconut husk and dead leaves mixed in. I additionaly have a couple large semi-rotten pieces of wood in there to serve as both climbing surfaces and hides(you won't see the second piece in the photo though, I added it after I took it), along with a nice, non-porous Zoo Med food bowl.

E.laevigata nymphs

E.laevigata enclosure

I am really excited that I was able to snag up this rare and very colorful hisser species! Many of the nymphs already have beautiful streaks of color, I really can't wait until they get their very striking adult coloration! Also though I'd mention that I decided to house my adult male G.portentosa with these guys since he was really messing up my old adult male G.oblongonota.
Lastly, a couple of my D.punctata nymphs molted in shipping giving me a total of three adults! The rest of the nymphs are sub-adults or pre-sub-adults, except for one nymph that seems to be one molt behind the rest. Their enclosure is a twenty quart Sterilite gasket box container, with a three inch ventilation hole in each end. Their substrate is the same as the hissers', mainly coconut fiber with a small amount of coconut husk and dead leaves mixed in. I also have an egg-crate and a piece of cork bark for them to hide under.
Here are some pics of them and their enclosure!

D.punctata nymphs

D.punctata adults

D.punctata enclosure

I'm obliged to Spencer for including this rare and very unique roach to my order for no extra charge. I was most attracted to acquiring this species because I found it very interesting that they're one of the only viviparous roaches and that they're the roach that scientists are experimenting with getting milk from. The adults of this species can also create a very strong defensive odor when frightened by releasing potent chemicals called benzoquinones, which are the same chemicals that tenebrionid beetles emit when frightened. Surprisingly, I have disturbed the adults a bit and have yet to smell the defensive odor, which is certainly not a bad thing!
That's going to be it for this post, hope you guys enjoyed hearing about my new roaches and until we meet again, so long!