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Friday, July 14, 2023: A Panda Package

Earlier this week I put in my order from Tcinsects.com for my Cubaris sp. "Panda King" isopods they were suppose to arrive saturday but luckily got here two days early yesturday! All 10 arrived alive and healthy and while I work on thier enclosure I gvae them some egg shells and fish flakes and they began to eat. Im really excited to start breeding these guys and can't wait to have a huge culture of them agian tahnks to Tcinsects.com for the high quality isopods and packaging really am pleased. These normally take a few months to get setteled in before they start breeidng but after that they start to reproduce very often and are a very prolific and easy species. so hopefully they do well for me! 

Anyways enjoy these crisp photos I got of them and I will see you next week ;)

Friday, July 6, 2023: Halloween Hisser Mayhem And Red Milkweed Beetles

A week after back from my Florida trip I had another mini vacation to go to Grayling MI, where I found lots of cool things like an Eastern Hognose Snake and some cool species of lady bugs. The number one thing I've been on the lookoput for this summer is Tetraopes melanurus, and Tetraopes tetrophthalmus. A native species of long horn beetle in Michigan. I personally call them strawberry beetles because of their bright red orange colors with black dots like ladybugs almost. It's been a dream to breed them but is hard to do so because of how they survive as larvae. Adult females lay the eggs underground near milkweed roots the host plant for these beetles. In early spring the larvae hatch and begin feeding on the milkweed roots before pupateing into an adult and later emerging in the summer. It is possible to keep them in captivity and breed and spoke to a few people about it on some discord servers. I found a few and will be seeing what I can do with them. Currently keeping them in a old empty M&M container, with some branches, milkweed cuttings, and a random plant they seem to enjoy climbing on.

The day I got back from Grayling I had opened my Elliptorhina javanica enclosure to find little nymphs running around and hiding I would estimate around 20-35 nymphs. While looking for more nymphs I found the other Elliptorhina javanica large nymph from a few blogs ago, had molted into what I believe is a sub adult. With this one having brightly colored red pronotum that I normally see only on the females with the males having a more darker pronotum. Going up north this weekend to Alpena Michigan to camp, hopefully I can find some more bugs. 

Thanks for reading this weeks blog see you next week and enjoy the photos.