Nicrophorus americanus, other discoveries

[Scythemantis]

Visiting Florida once again, we've caught a lot of amazing inverts, including something that the internet tells me shouldn't even be here anymore, an American burying beetle!

I understand these are highly endangered; is this something I should report to someone? Either way I'm letting it go soon so it can possibly breed.

Also found this palm weevil, probably mundane to Floridians but I've never encountered a weevil half this size in my entire life. Always wanted to be able to rear some type of large weevil, but these imported pests require a live palm tree, I believe.

Couple of nice velvet ants, very talkative and moody. I didn't know they could jump until I heard them bouncing off the plastic.

These are the little roaches I posted about before. I found one with wings but couldn't catch it. They're thumbnail-sized with short appendages and prefer to burrow all the time. Anybody know what they are?

Skunk roach! I was amazed to see such a big cockroach out in the wild!

Finally, two predatory land planaria. This is an animal I always dreamt of encountering, and now I have two of my own! They're young ones, and I haven't found a single earthworm small enough to feed them...or am I underestimating their power? Will they feed from a big, fat adult worm?


I also saw a red centipede at least four or five inches long, but was not able to catch it.

 

[arachnocat]

Wow! Great pics. I've never seen an weevil that big either. That's pretty cool. I've always wanted to keep some land planaria but they're really hard to find. Good luck with them!

 

[lucanidae]

Nicrophorus carolinus, definitley not americanus which are larger and have orange on the pronotum. Sorry...

 

[Scythemantis]

Oh...then I don't feel bad keeping it! I read that they can eat live insects. This one seems to be having problems, though. Keeps flipping over and acting dead. It's also covered in mites, but I think they're just maggot-eating hitchhikers.

 

[lhystrix]

Your skunk roach is Eurycotis floridana. Adults are wingless.
The smaller roaches are the common and friendly Pycnoscelus surinamensis.

 

[spydrhunter1]

Nicrophorus carolinus, definitley not americanus which are larger and have orange on the pronotum. Sorry...

Nice call....I was thinking N. sayi or N. orbicollis.

 

[Widowman10]

yeah, there are about 33-ish (if i remember correctly) species of nicrophorus in the US. they look similar but can be distinguished. some are very endangered, others are very common.

i actually attract them with dead mice/ground squirrels. i can get about 30 at a time on one little carcass

 

[arachnocat]

BTW, I'm looking for some land planarians if anybody has some they can send me. Does anyone else here keep them as pets?

 

[What]

PM sent on the SCABIES forum.

 

[Scythemantis]

I only ever found those two planarians on the same day and have had no luck finding more, but I hope I do. I'd love to have a colony of them, or something. I know they're VERY messy eaters, though.

I've also found an ambush bug, two milkweed assassin bugs and some sort of leaf footed bug larger than a grasshopper!

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Your skunk roach is Eurycotis floridana. Adults are wingless.
The smaller roaches are the common and friendly Pycnoscelus surinamensis.

Adult E.floridana have pretty large outer tegmina or wingpads (they have short wings but they're not wingless like hissers so it's easy to tell an adult from an immature). That said the photo angle is a little odd but I'm pretty sure I see the adult tegmina.

 

[lhystrix]

Adult E.floridana have pretty large outer tegmina or wingpads (they have short wings but they're not wingless like hissers so it's easy to tell an adult from an immature). That said the photo angle is a little odd but I'm pretty sure I see the adult tegmina.

Thanks for the correction and info. As many as I have seen in the wild, I never realized that.

 

[kupo969]

Definitely E. floridana, I see these all the time. How would you house these to breed them? Are they egg layers or give live birth?

 

[Scythemantis]

Just caught a very large mole cricket, first I've ever seen. I would love to rear these if I can find eggs or some more adults...anyone ever try it?

I'm thinking of trying to attract more burying beetles by purchasing some frozen feeder rodents, putting them in critter carriers on top of some soil and setting the carriers outside under a heavy metal grill.