Finally had some decent luck with my local tomocerus cultures. I'm assuming these are tomocerus vulgaris, sort of a silvery black (although totally washed out with flash in this pic).
Currently have 5 bins of these going strong, and am starting two more tonight. I hate trying to take pictures of them--they scatter like roaches when you expose them, and can jump at least 4 inches. I think at this point I've taken 500 pictures that only show one bug. I'm going to borrow an SLR next week if I can to see if that helps get the click faster to show more before they disappear.
Anyway, I liked what this photo showed, even if the quality was poor. This is one bark chip from the culture flipped over (there are around 50 chips per culture)-- one adult, and 30 or so young babies...although you really can't see all the tiny ones, they're just too washed out. The size discrepancy is amazing, the adults are around the size of two hydei end-to-end, but are vastly larger than the newly born young.
Cultures are a thin layer of sphagnum with bark chips on top. I keep the moss moist and let the bark nearly completely dry between mistings. Fed two fish food pellets, a sprinkle of bakers yeast and a small amount of vegetable scraps each week. (scraps are mostly to decay for the mold, which seems to help the cultures).
Currently have 5 bins of these going strong, and am starting two more tonight. I hate trying to take pictures of them--they scatter like roaches when you expose them, and can jump at least 4 inches. I think at this point I've taken 500 pictures that only show one bug. I'm going to borrow an SLR next week if I can to see if that helps get the click faster to show more before they disappear.
Anyway, I liked what this photo showed, even if the quality was poor. This is one bark chip from the culture flipped over (there are around 50 chips per culture)-- one adult, and 30 or so young babies...although you really can't see all the tiny ones, they're just too washed out. The size discrepancy is amazing, the adults are around the size of two hydei end-to-end, but are vastly larger than the newly born young.
Cultures are a thin layer of sphagnum with bark chips on top. I keep the moss moist and let the bark nearly completely dry between mistings. Fed two fish food pellets, a sprinkle of bakers yeast and a small amount of vegetable scraps each week. (scraps are mostly to decay for the mold, which seems to help the cultures).