# Two new pets!



## JoeCapricorn (Mar 2, 2010)

I was out in the garage taking care of my cat Milo when I noticed some strange black bugs near his food dish. I picked one up, took it into the house, put it in one of the vials the mantises came in and went on bug-guide to identify it. It is a larder beetle and about 5 or 6 mm long. Its name, derived from the writing on top of its container is Ereid, because this used to be Nereid's vial and the N is faded. So the beetle is Ereid.

A couple days ago I went to get crickets. One particular cricket was absolutely tiny, smaller than a D. hydei fruit fly. I managed to get this cricket out (because it was so small it was being trampled by the larger crickets) and I put him in his own vial and named him "Dot". I intend on keeping him as a pet and see how long I can get a cricket to survive in a captive environment. There are crickets in the main container that are much older and quite large because I never fed them off, but one of these days they will be fed off and provide a substantial meal for my mantises. Dot, however, is forever spared from that fate. Cute little fella!

I would post pictures but my cell phone doesn't like to focus on them and they both appear as dots anyway - Ereid is a black dot, Dot is a brown dot.

So now I wonder if anyone ever takes in random insects as pets. Maybe one day I'll have a pet fruit fly and name him "Toucan Sam" or something.

Other than that there are no updates on my mantises. When there are updates I'll post the update until then there are no updates so I cannot post an update that does not exist unless I am really tipsy then sometimes I might post an update that never happened that might involve dinosaurs and random portals through space and lots and lots of Youtube videos.


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 3, 2010)

Since your pets seem to be video sophisticates, here is an excellent video for Dot. I watched it twice!


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## Peter Clausen (Mar 4, 2010)

I think it's interesting how _A. domestica _is considered just a "feeder species", even by most of the people in our hobby that have a greater general appreciation for bugs. The humble house cricket will have the last laugh though, when its species is spared extinction because it is useful to us.

When all mantises are extinct, lots of crickets will have names.


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## JoeCapricorn (Mar 4, 2010)

Peter Clausen said:


> I think it's interesting how _A. domestica _is considered just a "feeder species", even by most of the people in our hobby that have a greater general appreciation for bugs. The humble house cricket will have the last laugh though, when its species is spared extinction because it is useful to us.
> 
> When all mantises are extinct, lots of crickets will have names.


Not the first A. domestica I gave a name either. I had a female cricket that I named "Berkshire" after the Berkshire Mall, where there is a pet shop that sells crickets. I got a bunch for my Chinese mantises, and decided out of the blue to keep one. She survived for a month.


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 4, 2010)

pretty neat!


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## JoeCapricorn (Mar 8, 2010)

It appears I inadvertently renamed the beetle to "Baph" (the "omet" is rubbed off) instead of "Ereid" last night in the midst of lid shuffle.

Some time ago I accidentally switched Fortune and Meek. Fortunately (lol) I know the difference between the two - Fortune has a shorter left antennae than his right antennae, and corrected the error. Otherwise I would've renamed them both to Feek and Mortune or something.


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## lancaster1313 (May 29, 2010)

I like to keep many anthropods, I have a terrarium for my daughter that I started for millipedes, grubs, and some kind of ground roaches. They dont seem to bother each other too much. There are also snails in there. All except the grubs seem to come out at night to enjoy apples and bananas. We love to stay up and watch them. We find these millipedes in the yard that are black and yellow banded with pink legs.


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