Hi, Just interested what interesting land invertebrates are kept in zoos. This is most numerous group of animal kingdom, but zoos mostly display few species: land snail Achatina fulica, bird spiders, scorpions, whip spider Damon variegatus, giant millipede Archispirostreptus gigas, phasmids, giant African praying mantis Sphodromantis, migratory locust Locusta migratoria, giant grasshopper Tropidacris collaris, Madagascar hissing cockroach Gromphadorhina portentosa, butterflies, honey bees, leaf cutter ants Atta, and flower beetles Pachnoda. What other land vertebrates are on display in zoos? It would be good to add scientific nam, if you know it.
The San Francisco Zoo and Sequoia Park Zoos in California have termite colonies (don't know what species). The Bronx Zoo has a Goliath beetle in the Congo Gorilla Forest. The Los Angeles Zoo has a Sonoran millipede in the desert section of the LAIR. The LA County Natural History Museum has a colony of velvet ants (really a wasp species). The San Diego Zoo has (had?) a coconut crab in their invertebrate house.
Coconut crab (Birgus latro) and several other land hermit crabs such as Coenobita sp. Geosesarma sp. vampire crabs. Jewel wasps. Bullet ants, bulldog ants, desert ants, honeypot ants...everything The Antstore et al. can provide. The Arthropod house at Cincinnati Zoo houses a nice variety of unusual species, such as diving beetles or the blue death feigning beetle.
Copied and pasted from the "List of species that I've seen" and selected land invertebrates not mentioned by you in first post, and deleting those privately kept / for sale at pet shops so only species in zoos or other public permanent collections (vivariums in museums, etc) remains: SPIDERS other than tarantulas (Theraphosidae): Cyrtophora citricola (Tropical tent-web spider). Cologne zoo. 2017 Viridasius fasciatus (Ornamental wandering spider). Cologne zoo. 2017 Linothele fallax (Tiger spider). Cologne zoo. 2017 Pholcus phalangioides (Longbodied cellar spider). Museum König. 2017 Holconia murrayensis (Murray banded huntsman). Cologne zoo. 2017 Meta menardi (European cave spider). Plzen zoo. 2013 Nephila edulis (Australian golden orb-web spider). Cologne zoo. 2017 Nephila senegalensis (Banded-legged golden orb-web spider) Berlin Zoo-Aquarium. 2011. Tierpark Hellabrunn. 2012 Latrodectus mactans (American black widow). Madrid Zoo-Aquarium (before 2000). Faunia. 2017 CENTIPEDES Scolopendra gigantea (Amazonian giant centipede). Plzen zoo. 2013 MILLIPEDES other than Archispirostreptus gigas Epibolus pulchripes (Kenyan giant red-legged millipede). Museum König. 2017 Tonkinbolus dollfusi (Rainbow millipede). Cologne zoo. 2017 Dendrostreptus macracanthus (Giant glossy black pinkleg millipede). Berlin Zoo-Aquarium. 2011 BEETLES other than Pachnoda Anthia cinctipennis. Berlin zoo-aquarium. 2011 Eudicella gralli (Flamboyant flower beetle). London Zoo. 2006 Mecynorhina torquata. Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes. 2009 Protaetia aeruginosa. London Butterfly House. 2006 Chalcosoma atlas (Atlas beetle). Berlin zoo-aquarium. 2011 Dynastes hercules (Hercules beetle). London Zoo. 2006. San Diego Zoo. 2016 Canthon pilularius (Common Tumblebug). San Diego Zoo. 2016 Asbolus verrucosus (Desert ironclad beetle). San Diego Zoo. 2016 Blaps mortisaga. Plzen zoo. 2013 Eleodes sp. (UNIDENTIFIED). San Diego Natural History Museum. 2016 Polposipus herculeanus (Frégate Island giant darkling beetle). London Zoo. 2006 COCKROACHES other than Madagascar giant hissing Archimandrita tessellata (Peppered cockroach). Cologne zoo. 2017 Blaberus craniifer (Death’s head cockroach). Cosmocaixa Barcelona. 2013 Byrsotria fumigata (Cuban burrowing cockroach). Plzen zoo. 2013 Neostylopyga rhombifolia (Harlequin cockroach). Prague zoo. 2013 MANTIDS other than Sphodromantis Gongylus gongylodes (Wandering violin mantis). Tierpark Hellabrunn. 2012 Deroplatys dessicata (Giant dead leaf mantis). San Diego Zoo. 2016 Hierodula grandis (Giant asian mantis). Tierpark Hellabrunn. 2012 TRUE BUGS Platymeris biguttatus (Two-spotted assasin bug). Prague zoo. 2013. San Diego Zoo. 2016. Faunia. 2017 WASPS, BEES AND ANTS other than honeybees and leafcutter ants: Ampulex compressa (Emerald cockroach wasp). London Zoo. 2006 Bombus terrestris (Buff-tailed bumblebee). Plzen Zoo. 2013 Oecophylla smaragdina (Asian weaver ant). Museum König. 2017 (I remember various kinds of ants in Berlin zoo-aquarium, including some Formica and Camponotus, but I’m unable to get the species, I didn’t photographed or registered them). Would you include "Moths" into "Butterflies"? I saw death's head hawk moth caterpillars (Acherontia atropos) at a butterfly house and Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) is common in butterfly houses... GRASSHOPPERS other than Locusta migratoria and Tropidacris collaris: Schistocerca gregaria (Desert locust) London Zoo. 2006. Duisburg zoo. 2017 Deinacrida fallai (Poor Knights giant weta) London Zoo. 2006 Gryllus bimaculatus (Two-spotted cricket). Cologne zoo. 2017 Homoeogryllus xanthographus (Ethiopian cricket). Cologne zoo. 2017 Phaeophilacris bredoides (Cave cricket) Plzen zoo. 2013 Pseudoproscopia latirostris (Horsehead grasshopper). Cologne zoo. 2017 Diestrammena asynamora (Greenhouse camel cricket). Plzen zoo. 2013 Lesina intermedia (Dragon-headed katydid) Berlin zoo-aquarium. 2011 Madiga liberiana (Armoured ground cricket) Berlin zoo-aquarium. 2011
Bristol currently has two species of leaf katydid on show: Stilpnochlora couloniana Florida Leaf Katydid Ancyclecha fenestrata Malaysia Giant Leaf Katydid The Malaysians are magnificent insects No longer in the collection but they had a great display of land crabs a few years ago
What stuck me is that whole groups are absent. True bugs Hemiptera number 50,000 to 80,000 species, of which 1 is sometimes shown in zoos. And many bugs are colorful, for example: Rainbow shield bug - Calidea dregii Rainbow Shield Bug Flag-footed bug Anisocelis flavolineata Flag-footed Bug [Anisocelis flavolineata] on Passionfruit vine | Barbara Magnuson & Larry Kimball Bugs compared to beetles have one disadvantage: they usually feed on a sap of live plants, and one advantage that their larvae are ususally equally colorful but smaller.
Platymeris (a few species kept, but mostly biguttata and rhadamanthus) are kept widely. Rarely I've also seen Dipetalogaster and Graphosoma in zoos. The native freshwater bugs are regularly kept in local zoos/aquariums (e.g., Abedus in North America, Nepa and Ranatra in Europe, and Lethocerus and Kirkaldyia in Asia). A problem with land-dwelling Hemiptera is that they routinely fall into two categories: Extremely specialized feeders (where getting sufficient food in captivity may be a problem) or agricultural pests (where local restrictions may prevent zoos from getting the species). Furthermore, although they're often very colorful, most species are tiny, typically <1 cm. A few years ago I spoke to a keeper at a US zoo famous for its invert collection and he said that unless it was a social ant, they rarely kept species well below an inch (2.5 cm) in size because people generally weren't interested in the tiny. I have no idea if that's true, but it wouldn't surprise me if it is. In the other groups asked about in the thread starter, the lists would be very, very long and only a small sample of the species kept have been mentioned in previous posts. A few major groups are however virtually absent. For example, many cicada species are large, colorful, noisy and interesting, but their lifecycle would make it difficult to display them.
Has anybody tried inventing invertebrate exhibits that makes smaller invertebrates more accessible to exhibit visitors (and thus perhaps more interesting)? That seems like a natural frontier of exhibit design that needs some exploration.
Please go on. While hundreds of species of invertebrates were raised in labs for research, much fewer are large, interesting and easy to keep enough for a possible zoo exhibit. Children have natural strong interest in snails, beetles etc. Zoos currently do not make use of it. Children zoos show animals appealing to mothers (cute furry rabbits, goats etc) not children. Making invertebrate exhibits designed for small children, and possibility to touch live inverts (e.g. land snails or stick insects, possibly similar to touch pools in aquaria) might be interesting. There is one with small water life in Naturzoo Rheine in Germany.
Because mothers (middle-class income, age 25-35) happen to be, at least according to the AZA, the key customer group for zoos. Visitor Demographics The majority of fathers simply isn't like, say, snowleopard, sooty mangaby or myself when it comes to zoo visits...^^
