#bugsky

visit the Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium if you’ll ever visit Shizuoka too! They have 5 coelacanth specimens and a very impressive roster of deep sea creatures too

schizomida are awesome you’re lucky

They’re quite hard to find… only time is when I found one under a longhorn beetle. You can try sifting leaf litter though they are more easily found this way

It doesn’t matter if one only buys captive bred, by engaging with this trade you also increase the demand for wild animals. This is because fresh bloodlines need to be introduced for a healthy captive population and they will keep coming.

So many reptiles are made endangered PRIMARILY because of the pet trade. Your inbred, contaminated animal isn’t fit for release either.

We also can’t guarantee the sustainability of collecting. There is little study done on the actual impact of collecting especially on big insects w low turnover.

Would love to see this genus in the wild one day, I thought seeing a dead one in a vial of leaf litter sent to me was already very cool!

FYI tying is unnecessary for Phalacrognathus. Usually reserved for much more powerful species such as large Dorcus, Hexarthrius, some Prosopocoilus.

Most leaf insects start of like this in their first instar, always in a different colour from the normal green or yellow 🧐