So who here has been roach or bug hunting?!

Alex

Alex

Seventh Instar
Hey guys and unexpectedly quite a few girls.

Seeing that post with the beautiful assassin bug has really got me in the mood to start hunting again.

Have you guys been going out into the rural parts of town and out into the woods, fields, swamps, or mountains?

I know I sure haven't. This spring and summer I really plan on driving up and also driving south to look and see what unique roaches or other great inverts we have here either established or native to Florida. I have been busy and then I have also gotten lazy.

I would really like to see the guys from the SW particularly Arizona that means you thesavageproject!!!

Alright I will get off my podium now...have a good season everyone!

 
Outside looking for bugs? Here in MN we are still running in the negative temps! Everything is buried under snow! The only collecting I have done is a millipede I caught in our school building.

That assassin bug post was pretty amazing. I was so stoked when I saw it. I wanted to go hunting right then and there.

I plan on taking my Environmental Science class out once the weather gets better. They can help me collect and maybe we can learn something together!

I am hoping to start an isopod colony this year from wild-caught specimens... just because I can! I am also very curious about local roaches.

 
What? You never did a bug hunting while you live in FL? :P

There're some dream species in FL which I can never start a wild-caught colony here in the North, such as Pogonomyrmex badius, Gonatista grisea and Thesprotia graminis. NC is a good place too, but then I moved to NJ... That's why I am rearing exotic roaches instead of hunting bugs now ;)

 
Regularly. That's the fun thing about aquatic entomology, you can still collect some insects when its cold out. Of course reaching into the water isn't particularity enjoyable. As for how recently, two days ago and it wasn't very eventful. It was all Progomphus sp. and chironomids.

When it warms up I don't have to go very far to find interesting insects or roaches - I live in a fairly rural area.

 
I look through leaves and wood. Alex do you look through oak leaves and pine needles with white fungus? Alex you can maybe find interesting types of Cariblatta lutea in Florida. There is probably just one type of Cariblatta lutea in North Carolina. In Florida there are two subspecies right now, Cariblatta lutea lutea and Cariblatta lutea minima. Cariblatta lutea might not be studied very well from what I read so there could be more subspecies or the Cariblatta lutea minima could be a different species (I have read that the two subspecies do not interbreed).

http://data1.insectm...=1&otu_id=14708

There are many species of roaches in the Keys!

Forcep said:
What? You never did a bug hunting while you live in FL? :P

There're some dream species in FL which I can never start a wild-caught colony here in the North, such as Pogonomyrmex badius, Gonatista grisea and Thesprotia graminis. NC is a good place too, but then I moved to NJ... That's why I am rearing exotic roaches instead of hunting bugs now ;)
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Hmmm... people already keep those two mantises in the past at least. How about the Mantoida or other more rare species?!!
windward said:
Regularly. That's the fun thing about aquatic entomology, you can still collect some insects when its cold out.
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LOL. What if the water is frozen?
 
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I always look for cockroaches and spiders at school. I am going to look for insects in the rainforest of Xishuangbanna this summer vacation. It is very interesting to do that.

 
happy1892 said:
LOL. What if the water is frozen?
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I tend to focus more on streams than lake or ponds, as such it takes more energy (colder temps) to freeze running water. This doesn't mean that stream surfaces don't freeze. Slower flowing ones will and streams in much colder regions do. It does mean that 1.) walking across a seemingly frozen stream or river is risky and 2.) I have unfrozen water to work with in swifter flowing streams.
 
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I knew about the running water not freezing as much. Minnesota is cold during the winter and the northern part was lower than -40F sometimes (I have not checked much but each time I looked I think it had a day (or night?) about -40). Would fast flowing streams not be frozen in Minnesota? And -40 was one of the coldest temperatures I think and most of the other days were warmer.

 
happy1892 said:
]Hmmm... people already keep those two mantises in the past at least. How about the Mantoida or other more rare species?!!
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You're right, but hunting is the most funny part... NC is a good place, still remember doing aquatic sampling at stone mountain... Good old days

 
I've found a few bugs this month, some harpalus sp, a rove beetle and a firefly larva. No roaches though.

 
I see Parcoblatta americana quite often this time of year. I'm working on keeping them as a colony, it's a work in progress. I've found lots of Atopetholus spp. millipedes, one millipede tentatively identified as a Hiltonius sp., I started a breeding project of diabolical ironclads, and a beautiful orange click beetle that I have yet to ID. And I started breeding a declining native snail species in the hopes of increasing their numbers.

I really should start taking pictures of these things.

 
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kellakk said:
I see Parcoblatta americana quite often this time of year. I'm working on keeping them as a colony, it's a work in progress. I've found lots of Atopetholus spp. millipedes, one millipede tentatively identified as a Hiltonius sp., I started a breeding project of diabolical ironclads, and a beautiful orange click beetle that I have yet to ID. And I started breeding a declining native snail species in the hopes of increasing their numbers.

I really should start taking pictures of these things.
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Yes you really should!!

Are you close to Mexico?

 
Hey happy1892. I actually have looked for mantodea maya before.....No luck! They are supposed to occur in hardwood hammocks or the mangroves of the Keys but that is nasty and hard to look for stuff while getting eaten by gnats and mosquitoes.

 
I did not know about the mosquitos. I think I read somewhere that Mantoida maya are found in pine woods, but my memory is vague about that, I cannot find where I read that. Have you caught any Gonatista grisea and Stagmomantis floridana? Do you know how to breed mantids?

 
I did some herping/hunting in our local nature parks and all i got were small frogs, flame-leg millipedes, some snails and a bunch of cherry shrimp.

There were a colony of unknown roaches that dived under running water and held unto the bottom rocks. They look like P.surinamensis only bronze in color

 
Tongue Flicker you live in the Philippines? There is a big variety of animals there! Those roaches sound interesting. Does anyone know if P. surinamensis dive in water?

 
happy1892 said:
I did not know about the mosquitos. I think I read somewhere that Mantoida maya are found in pine woods, but my memory is vague about that, I cannot find where I read that. Have you caught any Gonatista grisea and Stagmomantis floridana? Do you know how to breed mantids?
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No I have no real experience breeding mantids...and I caught stagmomantis floridana by accident walking thru a grassy field in central FL. Do you have any pointers for catching mantids? They are something you find while looking for something else kinda bugs.

 
You need a sharp eye if you want to spot them in grass or on a bush. You can get a net and sweep through the grass and catch Brunneria borealis and (I do not know how common these are in Florida) Thesprotia gramina, Stagmomantis floridana. Stagmomantis floridensis are found around swampy areas

http://www.usamantis...loridensis.html

For mantises ventilation is good. As nymphs they need small food. Some species need smaller animals than Drosophila melanogaster, but I guess Stagmomantis floridensis L1 nymphs could eat fruit flies because Stagmomantis carolina and limbata can. I might get a picture of a container I make for a mantis to live in and other stuff. Do you have a lot of roaches to feed the mantises? You might want to raise some Chinese Mantids (probably easier to catch in your area than Carolina Mantis, but both species are common in North Carolina, Carolina Mantids live in Forests and other places) to get the "feel" of how to keep them, such as knowing when they are skinny or when they are stressed.

 
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