12/29/2020: Lobsters and assassins

While packing some lobster roaches (Nauphoeta cinerea, or “woodies” for the handful of Aussie visitors) today I reflected on how useful this species is. They were one of the first dozen species I ever acquired and despite their ubiquity I still find them incredibly endearing. I have gone so far as to work on a creating a giant regular lobster roach, the efforts of which have had very incremental progress.

With my recent expansion into assassin bugs I thought back to the days when I had larger Platymeris colonies and recalled that assassin bugs had a notable disdain for adult lobster and giant lobster roaches (Henschoutedenia flexivitta). All of these organisms have somewhat overlapping ranges in the wild and similar husbandry preferences which makes me wonder if something about the adult behavior (squeaking in Henschoutedenia particularly) is an anti-assassin bug predation behavior. Oh the curiosities of invertebrates.

-Kyle