Recent content by Ralph

It's that time of the cycle where all the adults have died and left me with a few dozen ooths. Should these be kept the same as the nymphs and adults or do they do better when it's drier or more humid?

Has anyone incubated and hatched these before? I have around 40 eggs and want to know what's worked.

Through a combination of giveaways and bad vacation maintenance I'm down to 7 peppereds. 6 of these are male, and the female is the youngest. If anyone has a few adult or subadult females I could buy I'd be very appreciative (and so would my roaches!).

http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj606/Tenodera4/e4fcb311.mp4 Y'all can vote, and in two generations I'll let you know.

Last night I was measuring my adult Blaberus craniifer (and got to smell plenty of their defensive odor). I went upstairs for an hour, then returned and heard a commotion from their tank. An adult male, about 5 months old and with one antenna, was running manicly, falling on nhis back, thrashing...

I was struck by a heavenly vision yesterday. Went out behind American Electronics, caught a bunch of these grasshoppers, and set them up in a big Sterilite tub with an inch of off-road trail-dust and some hardy grasses and forbs. All my previous attempts at breeding this species have failed...

So I was peeling bark today and unearthed a nest of tiny orange ants. I watched them frantically carry their larvae and pupae away in various directions for a while, and noticed a small, round jumping spider (Naphrys) hop over. It made a few pounces at the ants but pulled back when they defended...

Caught a pair of these shiny little guys for my most determined effort at rearing them yet. So far, one's eaten a small spider but they're both still adjusting to the invisible walls :P . Wish me well!

I'm looking for either of these Orthopterans. I'd prefer nymphs if that stage is available. If anybody has some, please send me a PM. :D

I have a pair of adult Phidippus audax and several slings that have been doing phenomenally all summer. What I don't know is how to hibernate them... My plan is to put them somewhere cold (but not too cold) and rarely mist to keep them from drying out. I'm especially worried about the slings...

After being nauseous from a water ride at the Wisconsin Dells, I was walking around the poolside looking at the exotic plants they'd apparently imported from California. Peeling back the loose bark of a banana plant, I found a colony of webspinners (Haploembia solieri). Has anyone tried to...

I just recieved some awesome Archimandrita tesselata from the Invert Shop. The shipping was very fast, there was a generous overcount, and the animals are very healthy. A+!

Are these things supposed to still be here? Last I heard, they were in California and were controlled by the vedalia ladybird. Now they're turning up on my maple trees. Have they been here all this time and I just haven't seen any, and are they a problem anymore?

Anyone who keeps Phidippus sp., please enlighten me as to if this is normal behavior. My pair of Phidippus audax spend a good amount of time hanging, sticking, wedging, or otherwise adding the corpses of prey items to various places in their container. B) Their favorite things to do seem to...

I caught 5-6 Asellus sp. of varying ages in a creek today. As I was watching them, I noticed an inch-long adult swim over an apparently subadult juvenile and hold it between its legs in the body arch for several hours. When I looked closer, the legs seem specialized for that purpose (hook-like...