Posts

Scalida latiusvittata, a truly slept on species?

Image
Around early October 2025, I went nearby a fishing area to look at some wild fish. There was a large population of guppies around the area. It was kind of like a sewer system but pretty clear and taken over by nature. I got curious and did start flipping the stones around the place, and seeing the large amount of moss growing on the surface and sides of the water, so I was quite sure I'd find something. I spotted some little dark red colored insects darting very quickly, and they turned out to be these little nymphs of a roach. I found about 5 or 6 individuals. They were these little roach nymphs. I caught a few in some little deli cups and brought them home. I was pretty sure they were either pre-adults or a species with vestigial wings as seen here. I set up a little cup with some substrate, bark, some moss, and other stuff. Soon enough, they matured! And I realized this was a species I have seen before. They were these Scalida latiusvittata, a small Ectobiid species that origina...

Homalosilpha sp. Colony Report

Image
 Hello everyone. Welcome to another post, its been quite a while. So about more than a month ago on 3/7/2025, I got a package containing a small colony of an unidentified Homalosilpha species. Upon opening the package, it was this little bottle with some stuff inside and of course, the roaches themselves. I refer to them as Homalosilpha sp. "South Sumatra", as it is their collection origin based on the seller. This genus is generally known as Asian Flat Roaches, based on their native range in the continent of Asia and being particularly flatter compared to other roaches. In my opinion this is pretty unique and interesting Here they are, very nice looking species and definitely one of my favorite genus of roaches. I received probably about 5 nymphs and 5 adults. In the past, around October 2024 I had gotten a few specimens of Homalosilpha ustulata, but I had failed keeping them. I think my main mistake was keeping them too warm and way too humid. They do enjoy humidity but I t...

Roach Updates and Invertebrate "Spotting"

Image
 Hello. I haven't posted here in a while, so why not give some updates? First of all, here are some pretty dominant colonies still going strong. Neostylopyga rhombifolia and Periplaneta americana. So first of all, on 25/5/2025, I went to a pretty small unused patch of grass or land to see what I could find. The area around here is quite abundant in invertebrate species, and reptiles too. I found a lot of species, such as earwigs, spiders, roaches, moths, etc. But the ones that I will be mainly focusing on are a species of roach that I collected here. Lobopterella dimidiatipes L. dimidiatipes is a small, wingless species of roach that to my knowledge isn't too commonly kept around the hobby. They are a stunning species though, having some very nice looking pattern. I collected a few of these nymphs from there, and I kept them in a little cup with sphagnum and bark. Just three days later, on the 28th of May the first adult matured. As you can see above, the mature specimens have ...