Assassin Bugs!!!!

[Brian S]

Check this out!!! Some of the eggs are starting to hatch

 

[psionix]

what did i tell you!? what was it, 3 weeks + 1 day? congrats man!

i want some!

 

[Brian S]

hehe it didnt take very long for sure. When I get enough of a population going I'll send you some

 

[The Snark]

This is sad for me. I was recently up in what I refer to as poisonville. A hill area in northern Thailand. Thousands of tons of pesticide laden cabbages are grown every year by poorly educated people doing what the chemical company representatives told them to do. At one place I saw a farmer leave the edge of his field and cross the road to spray a fallen tree and the surrounding vegetation. When he left I went over to see what he had determined to be a deadly threat to his precious cabbages. Dozens of dying assassin bugs.
Sometimes my mind boggles at how ignorant people can be. But worse, these people were Hmong. Forest dwellers who know how to live in a jungle and if they stopped and thought, and were given just a little proper information instead of <trade name deleted as they love litigation> propaganda... sigh.

 

[CopperInMyVeins]

Here are a couple of not so great pictures of my big female, I've wanted to keep these since I was around 11 or so, and first saw P. biguttata in a zoo here. Hopefully I'll be getting eggs soon, I saw courtship/mating going on sunday night. By the way, Brian, how often and how much do you feed your adults?

 

[Brian S]

By the way, Brian, how often and how much do you feed your adults?

I feed them alot!!! LOL
I have several in a tank and I throw in a handful of crickets about twice a week and they are all gone within 2 days.
What I have learned, you want to give them a bowl of moist peat in the cage for a place to lay eggs. Leave the rest dry. The reason for this is so you can gather the eggs and put in a moist deli cup dor hatching. If you dont do this, the crickets you throw in there will eat the eggs.
After you get some nymphs, put them in yet a different deli cup and provide a climb. They molt upside down so the climb is neccessary.
Also, you can feed the nymphs a large pre killed cricket. I have seen up to 6 nymphs feeding on 1 dead cricket.

 

[Kevin_Davies]

I'll be receiving some orange spot Assassin Bug's soon, at the moment I only keep white spotted ones (Platymeris biguttata)
Are orange spotted a lot larger than them? all i know is that they are a large species.

 

[ThatGuy]

wow awsome thread, i have some assassin bugs around my house but they dont have that kinda coloration on them, there pretty much black but none the less cool. and also cool pix by the way.

 

[CopperInMyVeins]

Thanks for the info, I only have three right now, I fed them a cricket each on sunday when I got them, and I just threw in three more, I'll see if they're all gone pretty fast or not.

Edit: Just checked my tank, I actually have one egg already, but it's been laid in a hard to reach crevice on their verticle piece of cork bark, so it would be hard to remove intact, I'll keep an eye on it though, I also just gave the female an adult B. dubia, which she grabbed instantly. Most of the crickets I have right now are on the small side, and she was having trouble catching one, it seems like big prey is more their style.

 

[CopperInMyVeins]

Look Ma, no hands!

And some other pics too, first one is through the tank, she decided to hold the cricket more securly once I took the bark out.

 

[Kevin_Davies]

Nice pictures, what size are the adults?

 

[CopperInMyVeins]

Their bodies are about an inch and a half long, definitely big enough to be impressive. They can easily handle prey larger than themselves as well.

 

[Brian S]

The nymphs will gang up on a large cricket. Its pretty good entertainment to watch this

 

[sick4x4]

i like

very nic pics...now everyone wants one@!!!!!like me

 

[Pogi5]

The nymphs will gang up on a large cricket. Its pretty good entertainment to watch this

Got a vid?
That would indeed be quite entertaining.

 

[Brian S]

No I dont have a video but next time it happens I'll get some pics posted

 

[Brian S]

Here is what happens when you put a single cricket in with a bunch of hungry nymphs

 

[Pogi5]

cool!
neat pic!
how fast are the little dudes? i'm guessing they'd have to be quite quick or be really good at ambushing to take down a cricket of that size.
regardless though, thanks for posting that up!

 

[Arietans]

Assassins are very quick. Almost like Tiger beetles.

 

[Brian S]

These are reallly quick!!! They are much quicker than the ones found around here