Platymeris biguttatus Eggs

[MiaPow]

What color should the eggs be? My Platymeris biguttatus started laying eggs and I am not sure if I scooped them out late or not. I’m not sure how long they have been in the enclosure for. Didn’t want to bother incubating the eggs if they are already dried out and dead. They are oval dark brown to almost blackish color and shiny.

 

[pannaking22]

I'd say they still look good, but I admit that when I kept this species I had a really hard getting eggs to hatch for some reason (likely humidity issues on my part). If they aren't growing mold or getting all wrinkly/cracking, I'd say they're probably still good. @chanda is our local expert on these and would know way more than I would.

 

[chanda]

They look good to me. It does take a long time for these eggs to hatch - sometimes six months or more. I don't bother with incubators for them - I just leave them in the bottom of the cage with the adults. Once a year or so I'll remove all of the bugs from the cage and switch them to a new tank with fresh substrate, then let the nymphs hatch out and grow in the old tank, until they're sub-adults (at which point they get transferred to the other cage) and there are no more nymphs hatching out. Then I'll clean out the tank and add new substrate, so it's ready for the next cage swap. This tends to increase the likelihood of survival for the nymphs, because it reduces both competition for food and the risk of cannibalism - but even with the eggs that hatch out in the cages with the adults, a number of them survive to adulthood.

When I clean out the old tank, even though it's gone a few months without any eggs hatching, I'll freeze the remaining substrate before discarding it, just in case there might still be viable eggs. I want to be sure I don't accidentally release any assassin bugs with the discarded substrate.

 

[MiaPow]

Thanks for the reply guys. Chanda what kind of substrate do you use? I have my adults on just sand. Do you mist the enclosure with the eggs at all after you remove the eggs.

 

[Salmonsaladsandwich]

I have found that if the eggs are kept warm and the substrate is moistened regularly (but not kept constantly wet or in a poorly ventilated container, which invites mold), they can hatch relatively quickly, in roughly 1 month. I've had very good hatch rates simply leaving the eggs in a shallow open container of soil that I mist regularly, at one point with hundreds of nymphs hatching out all at once.

They can also survive dessication for a good while, so eggs that look dead and deflated can plump up again and hatch when exposed to moisture.

What I reccommend doing, which isn't necessary but I find is the easiest way to get lots of nymphs, is leaving a small container of moist soil substrate in the adult enclosure. Some eggs will be layed in the sand or in cracks in decorations, but they lay a lot of eggs and the females will preferentially lay in the container of moist substrate where you can choose to remove them or effectively incubate them in the main enclosure.