The Mantis Menagerie

This collection update will span from the Spring Equinox on March 21st to the Summer Solstice on June 21st.

This year, I finally managed to collect more than a single tiger beetle. In total, I was able to capture 15 individuals comprised of 5 different species. These were not found in my normal hunting areas. Indeed, only 1 of the 5 species came from my state, and that was the bronzed tiger beetle (Cicindela repanda). Another species came from Maryland, and this would be the same one I spent countless hours hunting here: the six-spotted tiger beetle (Cicindela sexguttata). Finally, the remaining three all came from Florida. The first two are the punctured tiger beetle (Cicindela punctulata) and the moustached tiger beetle (Ellipsoptera hirtilabris). The final one was not one I am happy to have collected. Before I put it under the macro lens, it appeared to me to just be a slightly smaller individual of C. punctulata, but I later learned it was an eastern pinebarrens tiger beetle (Cicindela abdominalis), which is a rarer species that I would not have wanted to disturb. Unfortunately, I did not get the closer look until I had left the collection site hours behind and driven to the hotel for the last night of the trip. I will compile a post on my attempts at captive breeding, but in the meantime, here are photos of all of them.

On March 22nd, I found the first babies in my peppered roach (Archimandrita tesselata) bin. I have written about them before, and they are still my favorite cockroach species in my collection. These babies are growing quickly, and as of late-June, several were about an inch long. For those wondering about how this species compares with the giant cave roaches (Blaberus giganteus) and how these stole their spot as the favorites of the roach collection, the peppered roaches do not have a musk. While there can be individual roaches that are the exception to the following, peppered roaches are much slower and more docile than giant cave roaches. Again, this can vary based on the personality of individual roaches in question and handling frequency, but the peppered roaches are usually better suited to handling.

At the time of the Winter Update, I mentioned I was in the process of sending millipedes to Arthroverts. These would be the Thyropygus pachyurus that I received March 21st. I am thankful to report that my leg of the shipment was successful with all of the millipedes surviving transit and arriving on April 14th. Unfortunately, though, the adult male whose photo was featured in the last post died within days of arrival to my place. To try and ensure his success with breeding, I included my largest male of my captive-bred juveniles. That male will be greatly missed, but hopefully, Arthroverts will have success breeding this species nonetheless.

On April 18th, the first of the Brunner’s stick mantises (Brunneria borealis) began hatching. I attempted to use planted deli cups so I could raise the first few instars, and I mentioned this experiment in my care guide. I have since removed the outline of that idea from the care sheet because these tanks failed. Just like every other deli cup setup I have tried for this species, the nymphs died within a week. I went back and am trying to replicate that Styrofoam tank that worked so well for Arwen. So far, the nymphs are falling victim to irritatingly benign-seeming killers: tiny bits of adhesive, surface tension of water droplets, and other things that the nymphs did not have issues with in the past. As of June 21st, I think I have baby-proofed the new foam enclosures, and I am awaiting some more nymphs. I have 13 oothecae that have yet to hatch, so I should be back on track to rear another generation.

In a bit of unfortunate news, my blatticomposting bucket mentioned last spring died off on April 3rd. I overestimated the population and fed them too much, causing mold growth to use up the oxygen in the bucket faster than the ventilation holes in the bucket lid could replenish it. The colony collapsed almost overnight. The food I had tried to feed them was the leftover wheat bran from cleaning the tank with my superworms (Zophobas morio). Apparently, they were not too pleased with it, and ignored it. Since I have maintained a separate colony of orange-head roaches (Eublaberus posticus), I am currently building the population back up in that colony in preparation to split off another group for restocking the blatticomposting bucket. The resulting substrate seems to be a decent compost, although I have yet to use it for any plants.

On April 21st, I found an adorable baby snake that has to be shared here. My justification is that this snake species is insectivorous and beautiful. This is also only the second time I have seen one of these snakes in the wild. The species is Opheodrys aestivus: the rough green snake.

On May 28th, I headed to western Maryland to see the Brood X periodical cicadas (Magicicada septendecim). The trip started off colder, and Gettysburg National Military Park had plenty of them that were too cold to fly. The weather warmed up and then the screaming started. The cicadas would be flying all over in the wooded areas and made incessant noise all day long. I enjoyed holding them and letting them fly off me. The males were particularly entertaining to pick up because they are the sources of the noise and would express their displeasure at being disturbed before flying off.

On June 1st, while still in Maryland with the cicadas and on the same stop as the six-spotted tiger beetles, I found more eastern eyed click beetles (Alaus oculatus) than I have ever seen before. The first one was a male I found right near the start of the trail. After collecting the aforementioned tiger beetle pair, I found an injured female click beetle who had been stepped on while she was sitting on the trail. The female’s abdomen had ruptured and her eggs were visible. I decided to carry her back to the start of the trail where I had seen a suitable decayed log just in case her eggs were able to hatch. This species must have powerful pheromones because a total of three males flew to my hand over the next half-hour. This species is unfortunately USDA-regulated, and likely would require a containment facility based on what I have been told. As I understand it, the rationale is they are closely associated with agriculturally damaging, elaterid wireworms. I have worked with this species from specimens collected in-state, and the larvae are entirely carnivorous. Therefore, the concerns of the USDA are unfounded, and this is another species I would like to see deregulated soon.

I am going to go ahead and end this early as the remaining recap concerns the best bug hunting trip I have ever had. With my incurable verbosity, that will take some time and can constitute a separate post, and I am already impressed if readers made it through this!

For the sake of maintaining continuity on the blog, while you read this article, you agree to think that it is still September of 2020. *

To continue from where the previous installment ended, on July 1st, I found a female giant stag beetle (Lucanus elaphus) at a light trapping sheet I set up along a power lines clearing. This marked the first time I have found active adults of this species. Over the next few days, I continued to set up the sheet and UV lights (395-nm) and captured a total of four females. Each time, they arrived within an hour after sunset, and although the lights were left up much later, this was the only window in which they appeared. I gave each female I captured a plastic shoe box filled with flake soil and rotten wood chunks. A few months later, and I have dozens of larvae. Ostensibly, the females I captured are unrelated, so the resulting offspring and hopefully future breeding successes will lead to a genetically robust captive colony.

Later in these early July nights, after the stag beetle or two had come and been collected, the other interesting visitors were grapevine beetles (Pelidnota punctata). I captured a pair, and they subsequently mated and the female oviposited in a cup filled with pure flake soil. I had dozens of larvae, but they cannibalized each other by L2 and none remained after just a few weeks. I normally would have been able to separate them into individual cups or small group containers, but the flake soil batch mentioned in the previous post never fermented. I was left with a minimal amount of rotten wood, and in the following months I prioritized the giant stag beetles as there were far more of them to feed. By the time I had enough rotten wood to spare, the grapevine beetles were gone.

On July 17th, I recieved Goliath beetle (Goliathus goliatus) larvae from Bugs in Cyberspace. I was the first person to ever purchase this species from him, and I have endeavored to make the most of it. I have placed a Goliathus Breeding Log page on the site that is dedicated just to the four grubs I received. (Note: as grubs began pupating, the datasheet was not utilized as diligently and there are gaps where care was not recorded for some grubs. Given the issues outlined below, it may be best to not try and replicate my care regimen regardless.) To maintain consistency, the grubs are referenced below by the names on that page. Unfortunately, somewhere towards pupation, I seem to have made mistakes with care. My grubs all began wandering early (30-40 grams), and while three utilized the clay layer for pupation, my only male, Grub 2, decided to return to the surface after spending a week supposedly constructing a pupal cell. He refused to borrow again and just slowly wasted away on the surface. After entering the pre-pupal stage, Grub 1 seems to have decayed, and by the time I checked on her (two months after last appearance based on Goliathus Then and Now: Last Pieces of the Puzzle Found by Jonathan Lai), her cell was filled with a putrid sludge. Grub 4 did not make it to pre-pupa and was covered with a fungus at two months. Considering she could have been killed by entomophagous fungi, I immediately removed her entire tank. Grub 3 still seems alive, and she is my last hope for raising an adult of this magnificent species.

Starting July 11th, I began a breeding colony of yellow-striped armyworms (Spodoptera ornithogalli) from a wild moth that laid eggs in my care. The eggs hatched after four days and gave me hundreds of larvae. I offered both romaine lettuce and spinach, but the spinach was regularly ignored in favor of the lettuce. The larvae were very messy, and I ended up cleaning the tank every other day because mold would start growing on the piles of frass almost immediately. Enough made it to pupation and the adults eclosed August 17th. The next generation was much more successful to the point that I had to cull the colony in order to keep the numbers manageable. Annoyingly, right before pupation, this generation attracted the attention of the omnipresent, yet usually benign, phorid fly infestation that occupies the bug room. The phorid flies attacked the pre-pupal larvae, and consequently, I was left with a single pupa. Being around early October, the wild moths were not as forthcoming to my light traps, and I was unable to restart the colony before winter. This common species should be easy to track down again next year, but this time they are probably going in gasket bins to keep the flies out.

On July 23rd, a welcome surprise emerged and crawled across my room to spray meconium on the giant Asian millipede (Thyropygus pachyurus) tank ventilation holes. A cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia) from last July (2019) had eclosed while it had yet to be transferred to the hatching cage. Fortunately, it made do (and a mess).

Released the cecropia moth at 11 pm on July 24th, and immediately afterwards, I was dive-bombed by a massive beetle. This was my first time encountering a wild, living, adult triceratops beetle (Phileurus truncatus). I have raised wild-caught larvae before and kept adults, and I have also found dead adults in my yard, giving clear evidence they were present locally prior to this encounter. Unlike most of their dynastine, typically frugivorous or mucivorous relatives, in their adult stage, these beetles are carnivorous, eating other insects occuring naturally in the tree cavity habitat. The beetle, which turned out to be a male, lived for several months eating caterpillars (the armyworms were a favorite of his).

To take a pause from captive insects, on July 30th, I found that a large planting of spider flowers (Cleome hassleriana) was attracting the largest gathering of sphingids I had ever seen. There were easily dozens appearing right at dusk to nectar on the flower heads. Just mentioning this because I am planning to plant copious amounts of spider flowers to try and attract sphingids to the host plants I have waiting for them.

To again digress from my personal collection, I photographed a Luna moth (Actias luna) caterpillar raised by a local insectary. They are one of the most beautiful moths in the United States, but they are more rarely encountered than I would prefer.

Also, to account for the digressions from developments in The Mantis Menagerie collection, it is worth noting that the first week of August was a bioblitz. I treat those seriously and am out to win by whatever metric I can when I participate in one. I schedule non-daily insect care routines around the bioblitz to maximize observation time. I personally recommend joining the City Nature Challenge which is hosted on iNaturalist (my top recommendation for a citizen science site in general).

Back to my arthropods with one that has yet to be featured on this blog. Back on June 17th, I acquired a wild-caught Dicaelus purpuratus ground beetle from a local friend. I kept it until it died January 8th. It seems to have died of old age because it had food and consistent care the entire time up until death. Care was as follows. The tank setup was basically an isopod tank with a ground beetle. This choice in substrate composition and tankmates was derived from a passing remark in Orin McMonigle’s Ultimate Guide to Breeding Beetles in reference to Calosoma scrutator breeding. It is mentioned that C. scrutator had reproduced when placed in a large tank with Porcellio sp. isopods, and given that these species are fairly close relatives, it seemed to present a possible avenue to stimulate oviposition if this was a female. I replicated this with my own isopods and in a few months that beetle tank had a larger isopod population than my dedicated isopod tanks!

The beetle did not seem to eat the isopods, but Hikari^® Cichlid Gold medium pellets disappeared nigh instantaneously. I provided these pellets every five to seven days.

Temperature was maintained at a constant 72˚F, and humidity was that of air in a plastic shoe box with perpetually moist substrate in it.

I am hoping someone can figure out how to stimulate oviposition, or at least how to sex this species. I was unable to find any conclusive information for sexing beetles of this genus, so after trying to stimulate oviposition, I may have in fact been keeping a male.

I am fairly certain that this colony did not make it beyond a few days after aquisition, but on August 15th, I aquired a starter colony of clown isopods (Armadillidium klugii). They gave me some great photos, and prices for this species fortunately came down before I began accidentally killing colonies of them. They may have even survived my the initial collapse of the colony. Although it is unlikely, my giant canyon isopods rebounded from an initial dieoff similar to this starter colony (humidity issues both times) and are now doing well. As an interim solution, here are photos.

On August 28th, I attempted to breed long-tailed skippers (Urbanus proteus), but although I captured a pair, no eggs were laid. This is a beautiful species, though, and they should feed on beans and some other legumes as larvae and make cute little leaf tents.

Also the same day, I saw, but did not capture, a Brazilian skipper (Calpodes ethlius). Not knowing whether it was a male or a female (experts in the subject of lepidopteran sexing are welcome to leave comments here as it is my main issue when working with the less dimorphic species), there was no reason to try and catch it for breeding.

It is February again for the readers of this blog (fortunately you read to the end or you would have been stuck back in time). Fall and Winter Collection Updates should be coming relatively soon in preparation for nature to finally get its act together and give me warmer temperatures to resume outdoor, entomological pursuits.

*Note: this statement is of purely humorous intent and is not intended to convey any legitimate legal agreement.