Morio beetles have popped

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This morning in my rounds through the bug bins I noticed my first Morio beetle in the Morio beetle tub! By the time I dropped a piece of squash in for it to consume and draw moisture from, a second was already in the process of molting as well. I left the container out on my desk as I worked today and watched others burst from their pupas as well. By the end of the day, I had 9 beetles milling about the enclosure with the remaining 3 dozen pupae.

In other news, I have noticed a few tiny Giant Canyon isopods scurrying around their enclosure along with the adults, so it appears that one or more of them were carrying egg when they were purchased that have since hatched! Doing a little research on isopod reproduction reveals that isopod females carry their eggs in a ‘brood bag’ on the front underside of their bodies, which is carried for ~40-50 days before the eggs hatch and the tiny isopods scurry forth.

This is my first ‘population explosion’ event in my bug colonies so far, and while I first suspected it may just be a few previously-unnoticed juveniles that were included in the original substrate with the other adult isopods, I managed to turn a leaf over in the enclosure to reveal a couple dozen of these little juveniles basking on top of the substrate before vanishing into the soil! These young isopods are already larger than springtails in the enclosure. Isopods reach maturity at around 3 months, so I can look forward to the end of October to see what these look like as adults!