Flat bugs

[Bugboy3092]

So Ive been seeing these small hemipterans under bark, and Ive identified them as flat bugs. Ive been wondering if anyone cultures these in captivity, and if they have any advice. I saw one feeding on an apple slice in my hissing roach colony, could this be a better alternative food to the fungus they eat in the wild?

 

[AlexW]

Oooooooo, these are higher up my drool-list than Penthe

I doubt the apple will be a good substitute. Many food-specialist heteropterans will eagerly feed on things like human-trampled conspecifics, nectar, and plants that are not hosts. However, these are usually only supplements and they require their host plant to thrive.

Wizentrop has posted about them on his blog. Maybe he has advice.

But I doubt anyone else has kept them, so I guess you are stuck with searching “Aradidae rearing” on Google Scholar.

 

[AlexW]

Oh, and have you put pics on Bugguide?

I have the feeling that different species may require different and highly specific fungi to thrive

 

[Bugboy3092]

Ok thanks, and I havent put pics on bugguide, they all appear to be the same species, and thankfully theyre in my local neighborhood so I can collect their wood (fungus) when I collect them. That particular one was a stowaway.

 

[AlexW]

Updates?

 

[Bugboy3092]

Updates?

not really, I haven’t gone out to collect them, but I think there may be some in my millipede enclosure.

 

[AlexW]

Are you implying that they are highly secretive and you don’t see them a lot in the tanks?

 

[Bugboy3092]

Well I never see them out and about, but I think I’ve uncovered them before while checking the millipedes.

 

[Bugboy3092]

Ok, so I finally got out to my park and collected some of them. I currently don’t have an enclosure, but I have them in a vial with the back and fungus they were collected in (I’m pretty sure the fungus is a species that can be easily cultured in coconut fiber) so I should have some time. Hopefully I can get a colony going.

 

[FirFauna]

They might be bark lice