My daughter and I have been keeping a bug terrarium for the last several weeks. It began as a roly-poly and springtail habitat but the list of inhabitants has now grown to include a Japanese beetle, a little spider, fungus gnats (unintentional tenants), a giant black beetle (that I think is a desert stink beetle?), and a green stink bug.

The roly-poly (aka pillbugs, woodlice, etc.) population has skyrocketed and adding a predatory centipede might make sense. The spider showed up in a corner of the bathroom sink; it was very tiny and had caught a couple of rogue fungus gnats. I added the little guy to the terrarium and he has grown quite a bit.

My daughter caught the Japanese beetle and green stink bug around the same time. They’ve been hanging out and occasionally eating fresh fruit we’ve put in the terrarium. The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) seems particularly hungry, and the shiny metallic green Coleopteran can often be observed munching away at a slice of strawberry or apple. I read that the first written record of this beetle, originally–as the name suggests–from Japan, being noticed in North America was in 1916 in New Jersey.

In contrast, I wondered for quite a while if the green stink bug (Chinavia hilaris) had eaten a single thing. Finally, I observed it snacking on some of the fresh produce we’d placed in the terrarium.

I don’t know what kind of spider the little arachnid is…perhaps if it continues to grow in size, we’ll be able to get a better idea. In the meantime, hopefully it keeps chowing down on the fungus gnats.

It’s been a lot of fun just watching all the action in the terrarium. The roly-polies dart in and out of nooks and crannies in the miniature topography. Occasionally the giant beetle, especially large in comparison to the other critters, makes an appearance, sometimes even atop one of the rocks (some variety of chert I picked up on a hike years ago in Missouri). The tiny spider weaves its likewise tiny webs. The springtails are usually out of sight but occasionally can be sighted (they were especially visible in an early accidental flooding that occurred…they floated together in little clumps of springtail rafts and seemed to weather the adventure just fine).

I’m excited to see what the coming weeks and months bring to this little world of bugs.