Anyone with experience breeding black crickets? Gryllus bimaculatus?

[SauceGandhi]

^This is the main reason for the potential of this species as a really good feeder IMO. If everything was legal we could just use the nymphs of the Caribbean katydids themselves as feeders. Or stick with Schistocerca. But getting a new species set up in culture has limited value to the chameleon hobby if it doesn't breed fast enough to feed chameleons, or can't be legally shared with other keepers of pet chameleons.

Florida Microcentrum rhombifolium has the potential to be both legal and productive, if they they are truly non-diapause as opposed to something weird like overlapping generations with eggs that still won't hatch for several months. Not sure if that even can happen but I suppose something like that could also lead to two peaks without providing much benefit to captive rearing.

Pretty sure they will still need a few months to hatch, but it shouldn't matter too much. The hope is to be able to just keep them indoors at a stable temperature, which would allow year-round production. Once you're producing at capacity, it won't matter if they take 30 days or 3 months to hatch. If I attempt this with the ones I have now, the eggs just dessicate. Same issue with the fridge method, which has otherwise worked for all diapausing grasshoppers so far (10+ species!). Therefore, currently all I can do is keep the eggs outside to hatch all at once along with their natural cycle in May.

 

[SauceGandhi]

Also just realized that that Houston TX has Microcentrum adults well into December and nymphs in March, so that is also a quick turnaround time, as far as this species goes. Nymphs in the spring and also the fall in this area suggests 2 gen/year and no diapause; probably just continuous development when it's warm enough. If anyone has friends in Houston, let them know what's up