tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86657974271155457422024-03-13T09:07:10.813-07:00Beetles as petsKeeping beetles as pets. Hercules, goliath and rainbow stag beetles. Updated list of live beetles for sale or exchange. Please email "Subscribe" to <i><b>beetlesaspets@gmail.com</b> </i> if you would like to receive current offers
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYlEk4_Nau_9LmFubu3_ug/"> <p><b>Beetles As Pets YOUTUBE Channel Click HERE</b></p></a>PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-56004889134564935962022-11-08T12:25:00.000-08:002022-11-08T12:25:07.372-08:00November 2022 UPDATE<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I still actively raise, breed and supply beetles and also some breeding consumables.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">However, the stock if often sold out before I can make a solid sale list : )</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">If you need anything you can reach me via: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Maxspetbeetles</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Instagram: </span><span style="font-family: arial;">https://www.instagram.com/beetlesaspets/</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Email: beetlesaspets@gmail.com </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/beetlesaspets</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig_fMp5-xg3OwcUQjSJbNM1YGG9jYAKOYsgsu0641CYjirh1T2e4U0Pt3VMi6qp_MhlfGn9mZ-xMNl5Bq-JAT0xgUpCopH71Okd8Cl5swIhdaXiNwvBrMJGfhzQeI3DVaiJwTyamvGzzfNp6oWgp7gwcZEgPr5vb-ch6PXioly7X4xLkLI5uiok3BL/s2109/IMG_20221028_132057169_k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1482" data-original-width="2109" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig_fMp5-xg3OwcUQjSJbNM1YGG9jYAKOYsgsu0641CYjirh1T2e4U0Pt3VMi6qp_MhlfGn9mZ-xMNl5Bq-JAT0xgUpCopH71Okd8Cl5swIhdaXiNwvBrMJGfhzQeI3DVaiJwTyamvGzzfNp6oWgp7gwcZEgPr5vb-ch6PXioly7X4xLkLI5uiok3BL/w402-h284/IMG_20221028_132057169_k.jpg" width="402" /></a></div><br /><p></p>PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-82544007870962937572021-04-07T07:37:00.003-07:002021-11-09T04:51:09.396-08:00Current sale list, updated 31.10.2021<p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #7d181e;"><span style="background-color: #fefdfa;">Beetle larvae</span></span></span></b></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2456297481140816001" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fefdfa; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 716px;"><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Available now<br /></span></b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>Adults</b> the rainbow stag beetle (<i>Phalacrognathus
muelleri</i>) fresh pairs with big males,</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">mainly wild type and reddish
colouration males, £50
each pair, ready for breeding.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L2 <i>Mecynorhina
torquata ugandensis</i> (dark blue), £4.5 each, or 10 for £40<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L3 <i>Dynastes
tityus,</i> £9 each or 10 for £80<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L2 <i>Jumnos
ruckeri ruckeri,</i> £5.0 each or 10 for £40<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L3 <i>Protaetia
aeruginosa</i> (mix of red green and black subspecies), £5.0 each or 10 for
£40<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L2 <i>Cetonischema
speciosa jousselini,</i> £4 each or 10 for £35</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L2 <i>Dicronorhina derbyana </i></span><i>layardi</i>, £2.7 each or 10 for £25 </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> <br /></span><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Available soon<br /></span></b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 <i>Mecynorhina
torquata ugandensis</i> (dark blue with purple), £4.5 each, or 10 for
£40 (November)<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 <i>Mecynorrhina
oberthuri decorata,</i> £6 each or 10 for £55 (November) <br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 <i>Mecynorrhina
oberthuri unicolour,</i> £6 each or 10 for £55 (December) <br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 <i>Dicronorhina
derbyana conradsi</i> (blue line), £4.5 each or 10 for £40 (December)<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 <i>Cetonischema
speciosa cyanichlora</i>, £6 each or 10 for £55<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 Goliaths
beetle, <i>Goliathus goliatus</i>, £11 each or 10 for £100
(November-December)<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 Goliath
beetle, <i>Goliathus orientalis preissi (usambarensis),</i> £12 each
or 10 for £110<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"> (December)<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 Rainbow
stag beetle<i> Phalacrognathus muelleri</i> (red form), £6 each or 10 for £50 </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">(December)<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 <i>Megasoma
mars</i>, £9 each or 10 for
£85 (December)<br /></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">L1-L2 <i>Dynastes
myashitai</i>, £8 each or 10 for
£70 (December) <br /></span><o:p> </o:p></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Payment and postage: </span></b></p></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2456297481140816001" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fefdfa; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 716px;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the moment UK postage is as normal, as long as the weather is good.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Postage to other locations is possible is the weather is warm enough at the moment. Please contact me about it. </span></span></p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Payment is by Paypal (bank transfer is also possible).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Based on ~0.5 Kg parcel (prices may vary for different countries or orders)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Recorded postage: UK - £5, Europe - £13, rest of the world -£15.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Regular postage (at buyer's risk only): UK £4, Europe £9, rest of the world £11. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">How to order: Please inquire about the items you would like to purchase, as they may become unavailable or prices may change. You will receive the total for your order, no strings attached. Once I receive the payment, I post the parcel with your order and confirm it. Please allow some delay between order and postage.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Contact /order email: <b><span style="color: red;">beetlesaspets@gmail.com</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">My trading feedback: http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/trade-sale-exchange-feedback-post.html</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Please subscribe to my YouTube channel for new videos </span><br /><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="color: #7d181e;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYlEk4_Nau_9LmFubu3_ug/" style="color: #7d181e;">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYlEk4_Nau_9LmFubu3_ug/</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div></div>PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-88814887534324555032020-04-25T07:03:00.000-07:002020-06-13T02:29:23.728-07:00Current sale list, updated 13.06.2020<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #7d181e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">An update about the sale list on </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">https://beetlesaspets.blogspot.com/. </span></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"> Because of inconsistent supply of the larvae from female beetles and irregularities in "metamorphosing" pupae to adult beetles </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">in my beetle husbandry I have been struggling to accumulate </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">a sufficient number of species for a decent regular sale list. In addition, some factors such as last unusually</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> warm </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">winter (which allowed sales/shipping throughout most of this year) did not help much. Therefore I have decided to try and update the availability on site more frequently, e.g. once every two-three weeks. I would still suggest to keep subscribing to the sale list for updates and quick sales, e.g. extra males of big beetles or extra breeding pairs which I suddenly decided not to use in my breeding due to beetle overload. </span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"> Please also note that with this horrible covid-19 situation at the moment I would prefer to ship only within the UK, since </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">delays and irregularities in shipping may create a problem for safe transportation of the critters. Once the situation has improved, the shipping will be back to normal. If you would like to make a purchase from abroad, please contact me in advance. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Current availability</span><span style="font-size: 22px;"> </span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis </i>(dark blue) L1-L2, £4.5 each, 10 for £40,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> early L3, £7.0 each or 10 for £65</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Mecynorrhina torquata immaculicollis</i> L1-L2, £4 each, or 10 for £35</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Mecynorrhina polyphemus confluens</i> L1-L2, £4.0 each or 10 for £35, coming soon!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Mecynorrhina oberthueri </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>decorata vs unicolour</i> L3, £14 each, </span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">SOLD OUT!</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Protaetia aeruginosa</i> (red, green and black parents) L1-L2, £2.5 each or 10 for £20, coming soon! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Megasoma elephas elephas</i> (the elephant beetle) L1-L2, £8.0 each or 10 for £75, more coming soon!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Dynastes hercules lichyi</i> (the hercules beetle) L-1- L2 £8 each or 10 for £75, <b><span style="color: red;">SOLD OUT!</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Phalacrognathus muelleri</i> (rainbow stag beetle) red line, L2 £7.0 each, 10 for £65, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">L3 £11.0. </span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">SOLD OUT!</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Phalacrognathus muelleri</i> (rainbow stag beetle) normal line, L1-2, £5.5 each, 10 for £50, </span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">SOLD OUT!</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Phalacrognathus muelleri</i>, adult males / pairs possibly are available from time to time, please ask.</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis, </i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">adult</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> males and pairs are available from time to time, please ask. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Small quantities of self produced <b>flake soil substrate</b> (suitable for flower, rhino and stag beetle larvae) is available. ~5l of lightly compacted substrate cost £16 including second class post. UK only postage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Payment and postage: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Payment is by PayPal (bank transfer is possible).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Based on ~0.5 Kg parcel (prices may vary for different countries or orders)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Recorded postage: UK - £5, Europe - £12, rest of the world -£14.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Postage outside the EU: at buyer’s risk only</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How to order: Please inquire about the items you would like to purchase, as they may become unavailable or prices may change. You will receive the total for your order, no strings attached. Once I receive the payment, I post the parcel with your order and confirm it. Please allow some delay between order and postage.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Contact /order email: beetlesaspets@gmail.com</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Payment and postage: </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Payment is by paypal (bank transfer is possible).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Based on ~0.5 Kg parcel (prices may vary for different countries or orders)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Recorded postage: UK - £5, Europe - £12, rest of the world -£14.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Regular postage (at buyer's risk only): UK-£4, Europe-£8, rest of the world £10. Postage outside the EU: at buyer’s risk only</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How to order: Please inquire about the items you would like to purchase, as they may become unavailable or prices may change. You will receive the total for your order, no strings attached. Once I receive the payment, I post the parcel with your order and confirm it. Please allow some delay between order and postage.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Contact /order email: <b><span style="color: red;">beetlesaspets@gmail.com</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My trading feedback: http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/trade-sale-exchange-feedback-post.html</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Please subscribe to my YouTube channel for new videos </span><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYlEk4_Nau_9LmFubu3_ug/" style="color: #7d181e;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYlEk4_Nau_9LmFubu3_ug/</span></a></div>
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-21188808733166060122020-04-16T01:51:00.000-07:002020-04-16T01:51:31.269-07:00Trailer for my youtube channel<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
I finally managed to make a trailer for my video channel on Youtube. I guess that "the making" was motivated by this lock-down effect as I had a huge surge in number of questions in my email inbox. The trailer features some of my beetles and its content was massively saved by a free music track :). For those who have not yet seen the video, please watch it below. It also seems that answering some questions is easier in Youtube comments, so I would be happy to answer most, if not all, beginners questions there (to the best of my knowledge :).</div>
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Please also do not forget, about this post for beginners </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-begginers-guide-to-beetle-breeding.html</div>
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and this post about substrates</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-brief-and-hopefully-comprehensive.html.</div>
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These posts will provide most of the information which you would need to start with beetles. The internet these days provides lots of useful data about different species, so please research well before getting a beetle :) </div>
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-39705412691372209492019-03-30T12:28:00.003-07:002019-03-31T01:47:33.135-07:00Breeding the Eastern Hercules beetle, dynastes tityus at home, Part II : pupation and hibernation<div style="text-align: justify;">
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The eastern Hercules beetle, <i>Dynastes tityus</i>, which can be found in Eastern and South Eastern US states, is one of my old time favourite beetles. The main reasons are: (1) even these beetles are relatively small compared to their tropical <i>Dynastes hercules</i> relatives, they are still cool looking rhino beetles with an amazing leopard pattern of their elytra; (2) It is one of the easiest rhino species which you can raise at home from the larvae. As adults they also live for several months which is pretty long compared to their close relative, the Western Hercules beetle, <i>Dynastes granti</i>, adults of which live only about two months on average. The larvae of <i>Dynastes tityus</i> are usually not fussy with their food and grow quite well on my "worse" substrate which would not be good for picky eaters like the larvae of large hercules beetle, e.g. <i>Dynastes hercules hercules</i> or <i>Dynastes hercules lichyi</i>. Although using such poorer substrate results in smaller (but still perfectly healthy) beetles, it is massively beneficial for my breeding, since it ensures that no substrate is wasted. Here I made a short breeding report video which starts from the part where the larvae are already developed into the late L3 stage. Once the beetles wake up from hibernation, I hope that I will be able to make the part one which will be about the breeding of adult beetles, housing and the substrate for raising the larvae. </div>
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The video is pretty much straightforward with some tips along its time-course and hopefully it will be informative enough for those who want to try to raise these spectacular beetles at home.<br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-11424197658332224392018-02-11T12:45:00.000-08:002018-07-13T04:17:28.610-07:00A begginer's guide to beetle breeding <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In order to save time replying to many similar questions, I wrote this brief guide for people who are just starting with beetles or are interested in starting with beetles. Please note that many conclusions on beetle keeping are drawn from my own personal experience with beetles; some people may see it differently:) I will try to keep upgrading this post in the future if I will come up with more useful information/suggestions.</span></span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why beetles?</span></span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In my opinion they are :</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> very unusual and often fascinating/spectacular looking insects,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> most of them are quite easy too keep and raise to adults, so you can observe their development, which is amazing!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The beetle hobby is massively popular in some Asian countries such as Japan where beetles are sold in specialised shops or even supermarkets. Perhaps it is not so popular in other countries, but there is still quite a number of beetle hobbyists in Europe or USA. Most of the beetles are abundant in nature, however some of the species are in decline mainly due to human activities; e.g. many species are in substantial decline or even threatened due to massive deforestation on the African continent. Creating breeding pools of beetles in captivity will ensure that population of many species will be preserved. As some of your may already know, the collective expertise of beetle breeding enthusiasts allowed successful reproduction of some difficult species in captivity. E.g. Goliathus sp. breeding became possible only a few years ago after discovery that Goliathus larvae require high protein food for their successful development.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <i><b>What species to start with?</b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3 most popular groups of beetles in breeding are:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a) flower (scarabs) beetles (family of scarab beetles, Scarabaeoidea; subfamily Cetoniinae; such as Pachnoda ssp, Dicronorrhina ssp, Mecynorrhina ssp, Goliathus ssp),</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">b) rhino beetles (family of scarab beetles, Scarabaeoidea; subfamily Dynastinae, such as Megasoma ssp or Dynastes ssp)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">c) stag beetles (family such as Lucanus ssp or Dorcus ssp).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some other beetles that people also keep are</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">d) darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">e) dung beetles (from subfamily Scarabaeinae)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">f) ground predatory beetles (family Carabidae, such as tiger beetles (Cicindela ssp)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Flower beetles (apart from Goliathus sp. ) are the easiest group to keep, then rhino and stag beetles. Normally (people like me) like most exotic/bright/colourful/unusual looking beetles.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When you about to start, it is the best to research beforehand about the species of your choice, in case if they have any specific care conditions, and, if you can provide such conditions for them at your home. E.g. some beetles may require fermented wood for the growth of their larvae or higher temperatures for their habitat. The keeping ground and dung beetles could be complicated due to some specific requirements: the first often require lots of space in order to obtain any offspring, the second group needs lots of animal dung which often difficult to find especially in urban surrounding :(.</span></span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How many stages of development does beetle have?</span></span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Beetles have 4 stages of their life cycle:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> (1) an egg; (2) a larva; (3) a pupa; (4) an adult beetle (imago) </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The development of the larvae consist of 3 different stages/instars which are normally labelled as L1, L2, L3. Larvae shed their skin at the end of every stage, thus allowing an increase in size of their head capsule (which is hard and does not grow). At the end of L3 larvae molt into pupae, which then molt into adult beetles. Beetles then stay dormant/inactive for some time during which they complete their development. (see inactive period below)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The duration of various stages vary for different beetles and the whole cycle could be as short as 4-5 months in some flower beetles and as long as 3-4 years in some rhino beetles. In captive breeding, when larvae are supplied with rich in nutrients substrate and other conditions are optimal, the time of the development of the larvae is normally shorter than that.</span></span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What food does an adult beetle need?</span></span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most of the adult beetles would eat any sweet ripe fruits, such as a pear or a banana. Ripe sweet banana is usually the best food due to its high protein and sugar content. However, in my experience some beetle species may prefer more watery fruits (at least from time to time), such as watermelon or pear, especially if the humidity in the beetle enclosure is low. Commercially available beetle jelly, which is mainly manufactured in Asia, is another great food source for adult beetles; its only drawback is its costs, especially if you have a big number of actively feeding adults. I regularly prepare loads of home made beetle jelly, which can be stored in the fridge for months. I posted a basic recipe for such jelly here http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/jelly-for-tropical-beetles-at-home.html</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Please bear in mind that this is a basic recipe with plenty of room for improvisation with other food additives:) Some of the species may require more protein in their food and and if it is not provided, they may hunt and kill their own larvae if these are present in the same container.</span></span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What general conditions adult beetles require?</span></span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Different species may require slightly different conditions; however for the most popular beetle species these can be pretty much generalized. Firstly, adults need to be supplied with a sufficient amount of food, preferably all the time: this will significantly extend their life time. Please note that on rare occasions some adult beetles may not need any food, e.g. adults of European rhino beetle, Oryctes narsicornis, normally do not feed during their adult stage. Most of the beetles which live in tropical forests require high humidity conditions. This can be achieved by keeping them in the box with lid and some moist substrate in the box. A few small pen sized holes in the lid or top part of the side of the container will be sufficient for the air exchange. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although the bigger the better, any small enclosure will be fine for beetles, especially if you are not planning to breed them. Please note, that males of some beetles, such as stag beetles, may injure other males or even females, especially if they are kept in a small(ish) enclosure. If you keep more than one beetle in the box it is important to make sure that there are some pieces of bark for them to hide and also branches and twigs for beetles to grab on, in case they fall on their backs. </span></span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What food do larvae need?</span></span></i></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The food/substrate for the larvae perhaps is the most important thing in beetle breeding. Some larvae will not grow well or even die if the substrate is not appropriate or has a low nutritional value. For most beetle larvae substrate is normally derivative of decayed parts of deciduous trees, such as leaf litter or naturally decayed wood or artificially degraded wood such as fermented flake soil. Larvae of some beetles such as goliathus at their later stages, may require only high protein food, such as dog food pellets.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Here is a detailed post about the most common substrates used for beetle larvae.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-brief-and-hopefully-comprehensive.html</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is important to know that larvae of some even closely related species, may have quite different substrate requirements. E.g. in my experience dynastes hercules hercules larvae at their later stages do not like a big percentage of decayed leaf litter in the substrate. In contrast, their close relative dynastes hercules lichyi may grow quite well in the same substrate. Unfortunately, the optimal substrate (or combination) often can be only obtained after a few tries, which may cost you a few larvae. The substrate or some of it is normally changed when a significant part is consumed by the larvae. Too much larvae waste in the substrate may lead to accumulation of poisonous gases which will negatively affect the development of the larvae. A similar thing often happens when too much organic supplement is added into the container, especially when the larvae are kept at higher (~25C) temperatures. </span></span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How to prepare a beetle breeding setup?</span></span></b></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1) Flower beetles (apart from goliathus sp). Require a plastic box, with a lid, 2/3 full with loose soil with the addition of some mulched decayed wood and leaf material. With several bigger chunks of wood and twigs on the top for beetles to hang on and to hide, plus some leaves or peat moss as well. Leaves/peat moss on the top of the substrate will help to maintain the moisture in this level thus preventing beetle dehydration over longer periods of time. This is especially important if you keep the male and female in the breeding box, since the male normally spends most of the time on the surface of the substrate.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2) Rhino beetles and goliathus sp. Requre a plastic box filled with the soil of similar content to the flower beetles. The first 1/3 from the bottom of the box needs to be compressed by hand; females will normally lay their eggs into this layer. The middle third can be filled with lose soil finishing with chunks of the wood, twigs and leaves on the top. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is a detailed video how to prepare a breeding box for rhino beetles or goliath beetles. Please note that this video, due to convenience, shows me using a smallish 22l box, which will be good for a pair of small rhino beetles such as dynastes tityus or allomyrina dichotoma. In the case of bigger beetles a bigger box is needed. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3) Stag beetles. Require any smaller box with white rotten wood logs covered with soil or mulched wood-derived substrate or fermented wood. Again place some chunks of wood leaves and twigs on the top of the substrate for beetles to hide.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Other small but important things</span></span></b><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What is F0 F1, F2, Fn...... generation?</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Inbreeding within one population of species often leads to accumulation of many negative factors, such as susceptibility to diseases and decrease in size of the specimen. Wild caught specimen (assumed that they are not related, or captive bred unrelated parents) are normally marked as F0, their offspring as F1, and the offspring of F1 is F2 then. So technically the smaller the number after the F the better for the beetles and the breeder. I tend to mate unrelated beetles as often as I can. </span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How long do adult beetles live?</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many adult beetles live a relatively short time. E.g. dynastes granti may live for only a couple of months. Females often die once they finished oviposition. Bigger rhinos such as hercules or goliath may sometimes live for up to one year or sometimes even more, but normally the lifespan of an adult beetle is about 6 -+ 2 months. One of the longest living species in hobby is the Australian rainbow stag beetle: their males can live up to two years! It is important to understand, that because it's literally impossible to treat any beetle disease, some adults may die pretty young and unexpectedly. I had a cyclommatus metallifier male which lived for 15 months in my enclosure and I understand that it was wild caught, which may add another few months:), while normally these live only a few months. </span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Can larvae or adult beetles be cannibalistic?</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although many beetle larvae are not cannibalistic, and can be easily kept together, some of the larvae, especially the bigger ones can hurt the smaller larvae, especially in a limited environment. The "wounded" larva then normally contract the infection and die. In my experience this may often happen to "faster larvae" of some flower beetles or aggressive larvae such as chalcosoma. Goliathus larvae of a similar size would normally not eat each other, but hungry L3 most likely will eat a smallish L1. So if want to keep the larvae in groups, keep them in bigger boxes or keep them separately, especially if you are not sure if they are cannibalistic. Similarly, some adults may hunt the larvae especially if they do not have regular food supplements in their enclosure. I saw a female of mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis hunting their own larvae underground :( which was most likely was caused by protein defficiency in her diet at the time.</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How many larvae to start with?</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If I have an opportunity I always start with larvae rather than adults. They are significantly cheaper and if I am lucky enough to grow them to adult beetles, the ultimate knowledge for raising the larvae of a species will be obtained. Some of the species could be very hard, or even impossible, as the exact conditions in nature for the larvae are hard to replicate. In any case I tend to start with at least several larvae, and if it is a completely new species I separate them in boxes with different conditions, e.g into boxes with different substrates or keep the boxes at different temperatures.</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What is the inactive period for adult beetles?</span></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After a pupa turns into an adult beetle, the beetle stays inactive (sleeps). This dormant period is about 6-10 weeks for big rhino beetles. For some beetles such as megasoma anubis or goliathus orientlais this period could be as long as 6 months or even longer for eupatorus gracilicornis. During this period the beetle finishes its development; therefore it is important that the beetle would not be disturbed and definitely no food is allowed. Disturbed beetles may live shorter lives or even die, especially if food is offered. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>More to come</i> </span></span>PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-50290104795962540552017-12-27T10:23:00.000-08:002017-12-27T10:23:01.205-08:00Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis colour variations<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis</i> is a big if not huge flower beetle. These beetles can grow over 80 mm, which is as big as a medium size goliath beetle. Geographically they can be found in Uganda and DR Congo. In nature these beetles display a massive variety in their colours and patterns. Because of such variation, the dead specimen of the males of the species are very sought after by insect collectors, and some of them can be sold for as much as fifty pounds or even more (which mainly depends on the size and the rarity of colour variation/pattern of the specimen). These species are great as pets, because they are quite easy: the adults are perfectly fine on ripe banana and their larvae can be easily raised on any decayed wood/leaf material. Their cultivation led to appearance of some unusual forms such as "blue" colour variation, which I believe was "selected out" by Japanese breeders and now it is probably the most popular colour form present in culture. In captivity, unless under certain conditions, the size of the males is normally within 50-65 mm, and the whole cycle from an egg to the adult at 25C can be completed as fast as in 8-10 months, which again makes them amazing pets, when the whole cycle of the beetle development can be observed within such short period. I have been keeping a significant number of these beetles during recent years and despite the fact that their larvae consume a huge amount of the substrate during their development, they still are probably one of my favourite beetles. Here is a short slide show which I made from photos of my <i>Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis</i> which I found on my flickr, phone and computer.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Please contact me at<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></span><span id="gbgs4d" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span id="gbgs4dn" style="max-width: 518px;"><span style="color: red;"><a class="gbgt gbg4p gbem" href="https://profiles.google.com/?hl=en&tab=mX" id="gbg4" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: red;"><b>beetlesaspets@gmail.com</b></span></a> </span>regarding any related issue or availability of the larvae of these species. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-90579833842034911692017-07-30T04:58:00.000-07:002017-07-30T04:58:03.696-07:00Saving the beetle with wings sticking out! Japanese rhinoceros beetle, Allomyrhina dichotoma<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sometimes the beetle transformation from pupa to imago is not always successful. Often beetle ecloses with some deformities, mainly because of the "mechanical" problems. Smaller defects, such as small deformities of hard external parts of the body are normally not life threatening and the beetle live and "function" just fine with them. Big deformities often lead to the early death of the beetle, often already during its dormant period. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the most common problems is when the beetle ecloses with wings sticking out, which may happen due to a number of reasons, such as deformities <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">of</span> the elytron which has hardened too fast, or when wings get entangled with remains of the pupa's or larva's skin. Sometimes the beetle's wings get a small mechanical damage and contract infection through the trauma. When you encounter such problems, it often can be solved by "surgically" removing parts of the wings that are sticking out from elytron of the beetle. In this ca<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">s</span>e the damaged parts will be <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">cut off</span> and the remaining parts will be much less in contact with the substrate which is a source of numerous pathogens. After the operation, the beetle needs to be kept in a relatively dry and clean environment for several hours so the cuts will dry out. From my experience, about 90% of the beetles which eclosed with wings sticking out lived normal long lifes after the parts of the<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> s<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ticking out </span></span>wings were <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">removed</span>. Here is <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a</span> short video showing such procedure on a female of a Japanese rhinoceros beetle, <i>Allomyrhina dichotoma</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you have any questions about it please comment here or on youtube, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">contact email is <b><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: nowrap; word-spacing: 0px;">beetlesaspets@gmail.com</span></b></span></span></div>
PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-17087496621224837712017-05-31T04:06:00.000-07:002017-05-31T04:06:55.411-07:00Beware! Stag beetle larvae predator: click beetle larva!Good decayed log is a must for most stag beetles if you want to achieve a maximum number of larvae from your stag beetle female. The majority of females would always prefer to lay their eggs into the log instead of laying them into a layer of compacted substrate. If you collect your log from the woodland, there is always a chance that other critters will be living in it. General recommendation to get rid of these is to soak the log in the water for about three days. However, I found that is often not enough to kill all of them. Thicker logs take more than a week for water to completely soak through the whole log. The other way to destroy things in the log is to heat it, which is often not very convenient. Low temperature long time dry log baking in a family kitchen oven can be tricky:) More recently I adapted the way of preparing logs by sawing them into shorter sections, so they could just fit into a microwave. Using a microwave 15cm-diameter log can be heated through completely in two 4-5 minutes steps with very little effort. The time needs to be increased for bigger logs.<br />
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In my earlier breeding experience, I often would use decayed logs with only short term soaking in water or even without any preparation and most of them would work fine. However, on a number of occasions I discovered that the number of larvae obtained from stag beetle female is smaller than expected and at the same time I found some other beetle larvae in these logs. Although many critters such as longhorn beetle larvae are completely safe for the stag beetle larvae, the other critters may not be as safe. Particularly, and I learned it in a hard way, click beetle larvae can hunt and eat stag beetle larvae. And this is not an assumption, while splitting logs when looking for larvae I found click beetle larva eating still semi-alive stag beetle larva. Moreover, if you use chunk of such wood as a decorative top piece in breeding box for any sort of beetle such as rhino or flower beetle, the click beetle larvae can come out of the wood and live in the soil hunting newborn larvae or eating freshly laid eggs. Here are some photos and video of a typical click beetle larva which, hope that you will find it helpful. If you see anything like that in your wood/substrate remove it and sterilize substrate/log by heating it.<br />
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<br />PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-8477862968812232922017-03-30T07:05:00.000-07:002017-03-30T07:05:00.489-07:002017 breeding pics<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just a few <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">photos</span> of results of my breeding in 2017, hopefully there will be lots of larvae!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some of <i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">D</span>ynastes hercules lichyi</span></i></span> pupae</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Megasom</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>a gyas porioni</i> <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">female</span></span></span> pupae</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dark red-brown and dark blue<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">m.t. u<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">gandensis</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>M.<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t</span>. </i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>immaculicollis</i> a<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">nd <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">o<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">range </span></span></span></span><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">m.t. u<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">gandensis</span></span></span></i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Goliathus goliathus albatus/quadrimaculatus</span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">pupal cell and fresh<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> extremely shiny whi<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">te </span>male</span></span> </span></i></span></span></span></div>
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-76424330124398129772016-10-18T15:48:00.000-07:002016-10-19T04:08:23.870-07:00Artificial pupal cells (chambers) from floral foam for beetles (video tutorial)<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the very start, when a pupal chamber made in substrate by one of my rainbow stag larvae collapsed, I simply did not know what to do. Later, I discovered that there is a possibility of making pupal chambers using either soil, clay or floral foam. However, there was not much information regarding how to make them, so I had to experiment myself, using intuition and any "internet based" experience. Floral foam, which can be bought cheaply on ebay, was more appealing as "cleaner" stuff, so it became my first choice material. Since then I use floral foam chambers on a regular basis, and found that the rate of survival of many beetles is often much higher than leaving them in their natural cells. Very often larvae construct their chambers at the very bottom of the substrate where is a high chance of the accumulation of the excessive moisture, which often leads to the poor air exchange and development of the mold and fungi. This is particularly relevant for stag beetle larvae which are normally kept in smaller containers, such as plastic pots or glass (kinshi) jars , and the air circulation in such smaller containers is very poor. Big beetle species, the larvae of which pupate in large boxes are normally not affected, because the good air circulation in bigger volumes prevents moisture from accumulation at the bottom of the containers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After trying such artificial cells with several beetles I came to the following conclusions:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1) it is best to put the larva which has already molted into a pupa, or at least an immobile larva that undergoing its last stages before the transformation. The mobile larvae will most likely try to dig itself into the foam and will eventually die. If such larvae is places back into the substrate it will not be able to create another chamber due to lack of energy and will die because of exhaustion. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2) the size and shape of the pupa should resemble their natural chamber by size and shape as close as possible. In this case take an approximate measurement of the cell from which the larva was removed. If you make the chamber too big, the freshly molted beetle may not be able to flip over, which is necessary for it to pull its flying wings under the elytra. Although most of the natural chambers are positioned very close to horizontal position, some of the species construct chambers with a significant angle or even almost vertical chambers, e.g. <span style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;">Allomyrina
dichotoma</span>, so this needs to be taken into the account when constructing the chambers. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">3) Natural chambers, are covered by the layer of soil, which prevent them from complete drying. Artificial chambers can easily dry out even through the small ventilation holes in low humidity surroundings. It is important to maintain the level humidity similar to the one required for the certain.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here is a short video how I make pupal chambers for my beetles. </span></span><br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-65279690631927771842016-09-16T03:44:00.000-07:002016-09-16T05:15:33.669-07:00Lucanus cervus subspecies <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> European stag beetle, <i>Lucanus cervus cervus</i> is definitely the biggest and one of the most remarkable European beetle. A major male of the stag beetle has impressive mandibules (horns), while females have smaller body and short and strong mandibules. Some exceptionally big males can reach <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">up to</span> 90 mm in size, although normally the size of the males is in the range of 50-70 mm. The females are much smaller, 35-50 mm. There is a quite strong population of these beetles in the UK; with patchy distribution in Southern part of the country. Interestingly<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">if</span></span> continental </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Lucanus cervus cervus</i> population is normally associated with woodlands and forests, UK population of the beetle is often associated with urban gardens, suggesting their importance </span>in preserving populations of this stag beetle species. The development of the larvae of the beetle can take 2-5 years in nature and I understand that the speed of the development similarly to tropical stag beetles often depends on the temperature and nutritional value of the substrate into which eggs were deposited by the stag beetle females. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Although <i>Luncanus cervus cervus</i> species is protected in most of the European countries, which prevents their trade and exploiting <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">of </span>their natural populations, it is my understanding that it is not illegal to handle wild caught specimen or even raise the larvae, if they found not in protected habitat in some European countries. I observed adult beetles flying on a warm spring night in our back garden in south London<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span>several times with occasional beetle landing/falling onto groun<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">d</span>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With continuous interest to this big stag beetle, quite recently live specimen of other subspecies or variations of subspecies of Lucanus cervus became available on Asian hobbyist market. These are <i>Lucanus cervus akbesianus</i>, which is considered as variation of <i>Lucanus cervus ssp. turcicus</i> (Sturm, 1843, antennal club of 6 segments) and <i>Lucanus cervus ssp. judaicus</i> (Planet, 1900, antennal club of 4 segments). Since the area of habbitat occasionally overlap for some of these subspecies/variations, there is a possibility of obtaining a wrongly identified specimen. Therefore an easy identification key could be helpful when such specimen are obtained. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p53Xgnc57yA/V9u8AitPaeI/AAAAAAAADWw/C2GW969VD88XzDA9SctGfRl1SCPo162DQCLcB/s1600/mandibules.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p53Xgnc57yA/V9u8AitPaeI/AAAAAAAADWw/C2GW969VD88XzDA9SctGfRl1SCPo162DQCLcB/s400/mandibules.jpg" width="400" /></a> Here I found an interesting diagram showing the characteristics of the shape of manidbules in different ssp/variations. This one could be very useful when obtaining live specimen to confirm their taxonomic position. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is my understanding that <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">breeding of protected <i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">L</span>ucanus cervus cerv</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>us</i> in captivity <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">from generation to generation so far was not extr<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">e</span>mely successful<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, so there is still a lot to learn about their <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">breedi<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ng </span>specifics. One of the most <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">restricting </span>factors is <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a </span>limited number o<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">f the specimen<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> which can be obtained for s<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">uch studies<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. Often, such speci<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">men <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">originate fr<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">o<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">m</span> </span></span>one h<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">eavi<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ly inbred </span></span>pop<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ulation<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, which woul<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">d contribute negatively to the survival rate of the captive bred speci<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">men. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is quite possible that us<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ing <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">other readily available <i>Lucanus cervus ssp</i> as a <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">model could be very beneficial for learning insights into the raising <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">protected lucanus cervus cervus <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and restorin<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">g their population in <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">nature<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are some very interesting reads about </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><i>L</i></span><i>ucanus cervus</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/index.html</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">http://www.glaphyridae.com/Lucanidae/Lu_cervus.html</span></span></div>
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-55831608274333766182016-09-07T02:50:00.001-07:002016-09-07T02:50:32.175-07:00Trade sale exchange feedback post<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Feel free to share your trading experience with me here :)))</b></span></span></span>PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-1044264316935837182016-07-07T01:50:00.000-07:002016-07-07T01:50:19.078-07:00Green and red Protaetia (cetonischema) aeruginosa live beetle videoJust uploaded videos showing two different colour variations of Protaetia (cetonischema) aeruginosa from my collection. Both beetles are stunning, very shiny. Adult beetles normally reach the size of 15-20 mm, and very easy to keep and breed. Adult beetles feed on any fruit really and their larvae will grow well in any decaying organic material such as leaf litter, rotten wood or compost. Plus they are totally safe, a bit shy beetles, and some of them can live several months, which makes them great pets. <br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-88045738731570270922016-03-16T09:44:00.000-07:002016-03-16T09:44:19.708-07:00Megasoma elephas elephas breeding report (care sheet)<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tLAqVbwK1EA/VulSrWWd-1I/AAAAAAAAAeQ/2Aob0WSvczsDRf69WZs1cSRJbGKhF2jIw/s1600/DSC04294aaa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tLAqVbwK1EA/VulSrWWd-1I/AAAAAAAAAeQ/2Aob0WSvczsDRf69WZs1cSRJbGKhF2jIw/s400/DSC04294aaa.jpg" width="377" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A giant rhino beetle <i>Megasoma elephas elephas</i> is magnificent species from neotropical ecozone which lives in tropical forests from Southern Mexico to Venezuela. The males are one of the largest beetles in the world reaching over 13 cm in size. Considering the fact that the beetle's elytron is also quite wide, the adult beetles look and feel (when handled:) massive. In nature the adult beetles feed on sweet sap from trees and ripe fruits, whereas the larvae are found in decayed organic plant material, such as rotten wood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Megasoma elephas elephas</i> is one of my favourite species as these beetles are relatively easy to keep and breed. </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Larvae</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Once the eggs are hatched, the larvae normally consume the egg's skin and start feeding on substrate right away. The speed of the development of the larvae depends on the temperature and nutritional value of the substrate. The temperature between 18-25C is fine for the larvae. The substrate for the new larvae should be finely mulched, preferable with some forest humus in it, which the larvae will readily consume. I noticed that my <i>M.e.e.</i> larvae developed quicker on the substrate composed mainly of decayed leaf litter with occasional supplement with dog food pellets, rather than on the rotten wood or fermented rotten wood. The humidity of the substrate can be from quite moist to just moist; the larvae develop normally in both of them. The larvae of a similar size can be kept together in small containers. The only condition is that the area of the bottom of the container should be large enough for all the larvae to stay at the lower level. It is important that the box should have enough holes for a good air circulation, in order to prevent the accumulation of toxic ammonia derived compounds. The substrate can be replaced only after the most of it was consumed by the larvae. On average the L1 stage of the larvae takes from 3 to 5 weeks, the L2 stage of the larvae takes 6-9 weeks, and the L3 stage takes from 8-16 months. The larvae molt to change their head capsule, as this part does not grow, so the larvae of different stages differ by the size of the head capsule. The good-developed female larva reaches the pupation weight at 60g+, when for the male larvae this weight is 90g+. The male larvae can be as heavy as 140g+. Once the larvae have reached this weight and became yellowish in colour it is then transferred into the bigger box for the pupation. The larvae creates the pupation chamber which is quite big, so the volume of the substrate needs to be taken into consideration. The lower layer of the subtrate in the pupation box should be replaced with some potting or top forest soil; this will help the larvae to form sturdy pupal cells. For example, for 4 big larvae the pupation box should be at least 25-30L in volume. It takes 2-3 months for the larvae to form the chamber and pupate. During this period the larvae should not be disturbed. The larva often creates the chamber next to the wall of the container so its transformation can be observed through the translucent wall of the box. Normally after 3 months waiting I remove the pupae and transfer them into the artificial pupal chambers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Left- the pupal chamber constructed near the wall of the container. Middle - opened camber with a female pupa inside. Right - the male pupa.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When the pupa turns into an adult beetle it requires about several days for its elytra to harden completely. After that the beetle stays inactive for 4-6 weeks. The active adults will eat any sweet ripe fruit such as pear, but overripe banana or beetle jelly will be the best food for them. The temperature should be between 20-25C and the level of humidity in the enclosure should be high, as naturally they live in a humid tropical environment. </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The beetles have very long legs and are very grabby, so sometimes it takes quite an effort to take it off your hand. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although many breeders suggest feeding the female of a rhino beetle for about 2 weeks before mating, I did not see any significant difference in number of eggs laid between "pre-fed" and fresh females, especially if you are going to have only one pair of adults in the breeding box. The egg laying setup is similar to any rhino beetle setup; the potting soil is mixed with some mulched decayed leaves and wood and the lower layer is compressed with a hand. A few bigger chunks of wood should be placed at the top of the soil so the beetle could grab if it flips over. The eggs and the fresh larvae can be collected after about 1.5-2 months. The female may lay somewhere between 30 and 60 eggs, but sometimes more. The most of the eggs will be laid in the compressed bottom layer of the box.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Left- freshly eclosed male, right photo - female, both with still soft elytra</i></span><br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-91798484194106674042016-01-31T15:52:00.004-08:002016-01-31T15:57:03.323-08:00Goliathus on the loose<div style="text-align: justify;">
Purely by an accident I spotted my like yesterday-still-dormant<i> Goliathus orientalis preissi</i> male, which apparently finally woke up from its sleep and escaped from his box. Still a bit wobbly from
several month inactivity, however, he has not died instantly, which is a good
sign:)</div>
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Big hopes for this specimen as he is from a different line than my females, so hopefully he will assist in production of F1<span class="text_exposed_show"> offspring!</span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show">Two first photos were taken after my 15-min struggle trying to unclench the beetle from
the beam in the enclosure. Various approaches were used including
spraying the goliath beetle with water, which in fact did not help at all:)))</span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show">Finally he capitulated and was transferred into an individual box!</span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show">Freshly eclosed goliathus orientalis preissi males are absolutely stunning: white, black and very dark red, please see the photo number 3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><span style="text-align: justify;"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">Please contact me at<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></span><span id="gbgs4d" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span id="gbgs4dn" style="max-width: 518px;"><span style="color: red;"><a aria-haspopup="true" aria-owns="gbd4" class="gbgt gbg4p gbem" href="https://profiles.google.com/?hl=en&tab=mX" id="gbg4" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: red;"><b>beetlesaspets@gmail.com</b></span></a> </span>regarding any related issue or availability of the larvae of these species. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"> </span></span><br />
<br />PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-18581644086401454822016-01-15T09:39:00.000-08:002016-01-15T09:39:10.546-08:00A giant rhino beetle, megasoma gyas porioni<div style="text-align: justify;">
A relatively new to my collection, <i>Megasoma gyas porioni </i>from Brasil<i>. </i> The beetles are really magnificent, very similar to <i>Megasoma elephas elephas </i>species. I know that many breeders use fermented wood to raise the larvae of these species. However, because I used decayed leaf litter successfully to raise M<i>egasoma elephas elephas </i>larvae before, I tried the same substrate with <i>Megasoma gyas porioni </i>larvae, occasionally adding some dog food pellets as a protein supplement. In such substrate the larvae grow strong and healthy, so it seems that leaf litter is a good alternative for the decayed or fermented wood substrate. Interestingly, compared to <i>M.</i> <i>elephas, </i>which are quite short-lived, adult <i>M. gyas porioni </i>live substantially longer; two of my males lived for 10+ months. Here is the photo-set of these beetles. The beetles have quite wide body so they feel really massive when holding them in your hand. The male is not the biggest of its kind but still pretty impressive!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Please contact me at<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: red;"> </span></span><span id="gbgs4d" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span id="gbgs4dn" style="max-width: 518px;"><span style="color: red;"><a aria-haspopup="true" aria-owns="gbd4" class="gbgt gbg4p gbem" href="https://profiles.google.com/?hl=en&tab=mX" id="gbg4" style="color: #888888; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: red;"><b>beetlesaspets@gmail.com</b></span></a> </span>regarding any related issue or larvae availability. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px;"> </span></span><br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-28846368902926919052015-09-13T05:49:00.002-07:002015-09-13T05:49:33.743-07:00The rose chafer, cetonia aurata in the garden.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t0VxjxIWWu8/VfViwyGAFcI/AAAAAAAAAZw/fGH7rBuo9AI/s1600/DSC03914ca_111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="444" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t0VxjxIWWu8/VfViwyGAFcI/AAAAAAAAAZw/fGH7rBuo9AI/s640/DSC03914ca_111.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The underneath photo of the rose chafer, <i>cetonia aurata</i>, female </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although it is considered that the rose chafer is widespread in the UK, I have never seen one in nature feeding or flying. Some photos found on internet showed the presence of these beetles in relatively close places, mainly big parks, such as Richmond Park. So I assumed that their habitat in London is mainly associated with woodland and park areas. However, about 3 or 4 years ago I left a big plastic box that I used for breeding of my beetles outside in our back garden; the box was filled with some garden soil mixed with rotten wood and leaves. The box was not covered and stayed outside for about 6 weeks. When I decided to reuse it, to my surprise, I found about 40 small larvae in the soil with a female of the rose chafer on the top the soil. This suggested that this female, which was flying in the area, found the box with substrate rich in decaying wood and leaves and decided that it is acceptable for her offspring. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I normally remove quite a lot of the used beetle larvae substrate from my boxes and I usually "discard" it into the vegetable patch in our back garden. This used substrate apart from larvae's frass still contained a significant part of uneaten material such as rotten wood and decayed leaves. This spring I was digging soil for the tomato patch and discovered 5 larvae similar to appearance to rose chafer larvae. We have plenty of summer chafers (<i>amphimallon solstitiale</i>) flying in spring and summer in our garden, so automatically I assumed that these are the larvae of this species. However, I decided to keep these 5 larvae and put them in the box with some decayed leaves. About 2 month ago these larvae pupated all together and later emerged as 5 beautiful rose chafers, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 females and 3 males, which seems almost a perfect ratio! </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I made and break with these species about couple years ago but it seems that I will be starting with them again. The males of the rose chafers, as many other flower beetles, have a distinct "invagination" on their abdomen, which often appears longitudinally divided (please see the photo below) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">contact email: </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #777777; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16.8px; line-height: 23.52px;"><b>beetlesaspets@gmail.com</b></i></div>
PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-82290675313157390282015-06-18T05:26:00.006-07:002021-12-26T16:34:48.089-08:00A brief (and hopefully) comprehensive guide to the substrates for rearing larvae of flower, rhino and stag beetles<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">When I was starting with beetles, I had trouble with finding info about what kind of substrate is suitable for different sorts of beetles. The things were further complicated by information obtained from various beetle "keepers" enthusiasts which used different substrates to raise same species of beetles. Since I am often being asked similar questions, I have decided to break down this information in one post. This information is mainly based on my own knowledge/experience and presented in a very shortened generalized form, and thus may not be suitable for some specific beetles. However, most likely it will suit very common groups of beetles and the post could particularly be helpful for beginners.</span></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">There are 3 most popular groups of beetles which are kept by breeders. </span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">These are flower beetles (</span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">family of scarab beetles, </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Scarabaeoidea, subfamily </i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Cetoniinae; </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">such as </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Pachnoda ssp</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">, </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Dicronorrhina ssp</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> or </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Mecynorrhina ssp</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">), rhino beetles (</span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">family of scarab beetles, </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Scarabaeoidea, subfamily </i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Cetoniinae, </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Dynastinae; </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">such as </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Megasoma ssp</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> or </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Dynastes ssp</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">), and stag beetles (family Lucanidae, such as </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Lucanus ssp</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> or </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Dorcus ssp</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">). </span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The development of larvae of all these groups in nature is usually attributed with decaying organics, mainly rotting wood. However, in captivity many breeders often grow major adults using leaf litter or leaf litter mixed with decayed wood as the main substrate. </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">It is also generally accepted that the simplest substrate is the one consisting of decayed leaves and wood of hardwood trees such as oak or beech. </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Therefore <b>"the basic" substrates </b>are:</span><br />
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1) Pure leaf litter. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">This substrate normally consists of a lower layer of partially disintegrated decayed leaves which could be mixed with some woodland top soil (humus). The leaves should be well decayed, not freshly fallen, preferably at least 1 year old. In such substrate, hard parts of leaves are pre-digested by microorganisms. The presence of soil in such substrate could help distributing the moisture and developing of the beneficial bacteria, particularly if a container with larvae is not very deep. </span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">This substrate is good for any flower beetle larvae, although some species may require some additional protein supplement during their later stages, e.g. starting from the late L2-early L3. Some beetles such as goliath beetles, starting from L2 stage require mainly high protein food, and almost do not consume any other substrate. </span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">This substrate is also used by many breeders for raising larvae of some rhino beetles, particularly of <i>megasoma ssp</i>. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">2) Pure decayed (rotten) wood.</span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">This is normally pure rotten wood from hardwood trees (oak or beech are always preferred), which ranges from soft white to brownish/black in colour and either soft or just soft, but not hard wood. The soft wood is that kind that you can easily brake and crumble it with your hands, the "just soft" wood is that kind that it is difficult to brake it with your bare hands, but it would be very easy to hammer the nail in. This wood is usually the result of part of the tree being damaged by fungi and in such wood the most of the lignin is destroyed either by fungal and/or bacterial activity. The softer wood can be used for rhino beetle substrate and for oviposition of majority stag beetles such as <i>lucanus</i>, although the "just soft" wood could be also good for the some other stag beetles such as <i>dorcus</i> or <i>phalacrognathus</i>. Both types of wood could be mulched and used as food for both stag and rhino beetles right away, although the majority of stag beetles may prefer the harder ("just soft") decayed wood. Since the nutritional value of freshly decayed wood is not exceptionally high, some additives such as soy protein powder or dog food pellets are often recommended, particularly at later stages of the larvae development. The decayed wood which you can find inside of large dead oak trees and which has pure brown colour and feels like a cork is not suitable, as in such wood all nutrients such as cellulose are already disintegrated.</span><br />
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3) Decayed wood and leaf mixture.</span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">This is normally the mixture of mulched decayed wood and leaf litter mixed together. Stag beetles normally do not grow well in "leafy" substrate and require decayed wood or more advanced substrate for their growth. This substrate, however, works quite well for many rhino beetles, particularly with some additional protein supplements starting from the early L3 larvae. In my experience the early larvae of many rhino beetles grow better in decayed leaf substrate with only little wood in it; then the bigger the larvae may require more wood as they grow. I normally end up with like 40% of the wood in the substrate for the late L3 larvae. All bigger chunks of decayed wood (ideally a log) need to be placed at the bottom of the container so the larvae could easily access it, if they would require more wood. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">1) Fermented wood (flake soil)</span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">In this substrate the harder wood components such as lignin are pre-digested by micro fungi and bacteria. The substrate is normally made using hardwood sawdust/shaving, baking flour/bran, often larvae frass and sometimes yeasts. The yeasts develop "feeding" on carbohydrates of the additives bran/flour and products of the fermentation at the beginning of the process and it is believed they are closely associated with some fungi which digest harder components of the wood. Yeasts are not necessary if larvae's frass is added as an additional source of favourable microorganisms and nitrogen. Ultimately, the process leads to exposing cellulose of the wood and at the same time enriching of the substrate with nitrogen-rich biocompounds/microorganisms which later are assimilated by the larvae. The "indoors" process is most effective at the temperatures above 20C and in bigger volumes and requires often mixing of the substrate. At 25C using air dried oak sawdust it takes about 2 months to obtain a good substrate for stag beetle larvae or 3-4 months for rhino beetle larvae. The substrate can be made oudoors in well ventilated capacities, e.g. woven bags, preferably in direct contact with the soil. It allows a massive influx of bioactive microorganisms from soil which together with efficient oxygenation provides faster wood degradation and does not normally require regular mixing, heat or addition of the yeasts. The ready substrate could be from dark brown to black in colour when moist and should not smell ammonia or alcohol but have rather "earthy" smell. As the composition and degree of wood degradation of fermented substrates obtained from different sources may vary, it is always wise not to replace the existing larvae substrate with a new one right away completely, but to introduce the new substrate gradually especially for slow eating larvae such as hercules beetle. The advantage of such substrate is a high availability of the remaining cellulose and nitrogen-rich bacteria/components which promote the larval growth. The fermented substrate for rhino beetles can also be used for flower beetles, although I personally did not find much difference in development between flower beetles larvae growing in fermented wood flakes and in the leaf litter substrate.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">"Rhino and flower beetle grade" fermented wood flake soil</span></div>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">2) Kinshi</span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Kinshi is the well developed mycelium of fungi, which is normally grown on oak or beech sawdust/woodflakes. Due to the high nutritional value kinshi represents an excellent substrate for various beetle larvae, particularly some stag beetle larvae such as </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">dorcus</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> or </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">phalacrognathus.</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> Kinshi can also be given to rhino beetle larvae but only as a part of the substrate. The woodflakes, mixed with some additives such as baking flour, are sterilized, and the mushroom spawn is introduced. It normally takes at least 2-3 months for spawn to completely colonize the substrate. In ready to use kinshi the fungus colonizes almost all free space of the container and the substrate should have a bright white colour. The most common fungus used for this purpose is king oyster mushroom, </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">pleurotus eryngii</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">, perhaps because its mycelium develops much quicker than other similar mushrooms. This allows fast colonizing of the substrate, thus decreasing the chance of the contamination with mold. Another fungus, which is important for the development of some stag beetles such a </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">Allotopus ssp</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="line-height: 24px;">, is turkey tail fungus, </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;">trametes versicolor</i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="line-height: 24px;">, is often used for making kinshi. The biggest challenge of the kinshi production, particularly the one at home, is a contamination of the substrate by mold which can easily put off </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> any breeder from making it:( </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">kinshi at early stage; various degrees of colonisation of the substrate can be seen</span><br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-62450994939323251922015-06-16T13:03:00.004-07:002015-06-16T13:03:53.900-07:00Goliathus orientalis preissi broken pupal cell and artificial puaption chamber<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just before constructing a pupal cell, a goliath beetle larva enters "the wondering phase". During this time the larva comes to the top of substrate "wondering" around, and trying to escape its current container. Such larva needs to be placed into a new box containing the mixture of peat and sand, where the larva will later construct its pupal cell. Sometime ago, I placed one of my golaithus orientalis larvae into such box and forgot to label it. Then later when I thought that the box had no larvae inside I decided to use it for another wandering larva goliath beetle larvae. The result was not very nice, as the first larvae finished its cell already and I accidentally broke it while preparing the substrate in the box for the larva N2. The larva inside of the cell was still pretty active, and I was hoping that it will have some energy to repair the cell, although the damage was massive:(. Normally such cell damage in large flower beetles such as Mecynorrhina results in larva leaving the cell and dying eventually, as it would not have enough to build a new pupal cell. I left the larvae in the broken cell as it is, and luckily one month later I discovered that it did not leave the cell. I transferred the larvae into the artificial pupal cell made from floral foam and about 2 days ago I discovered that it turned into a gorgeous female pupa! Please see the photos below.</span><br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-31587543879263942772015-04-30T07:26:00.002-07:002015-05-01T17:48:42.983-07:00Identification of the larvae of common European Lucanidae <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are just a few species of the beetles of </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lucanidae</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> family found in Europe, with the biggest one being European stag beetle, </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lucanus cervus cervus</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. The species of this family which can be found in the United Kingdom are </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sinodendron cylindricum</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (sometimes called Least Stag Beetle), </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Platycerus caraboides</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dorcus parallelipipedus</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (Lesser Stag Beetle). Apart from the European and lesser stag beetles, the other two do not look much as stag beetles since their males do not develop impressive mandibles. Although the larvae of the </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lucanus cervus</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> is considered polyphagous and often found feeding on decaying roots of garden trees or rotting fence posts, their typical food source is normally associated with decayed wood of hardwood trees such as oak or beech. Despite the fact that the stag beetle's larvae occasionally found above the ground, e.g inside of heaps of decayed woodchips, their larvae is usually live underground in their natural habitat. Similarly, </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sinodendron cylindricum</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> larvae is also usually found in decayed oak or beech wood. In contrast the lesser stag beetle larvae also can be found in decayed wood of various deciduous trees, often in logs above the ground and often in big numbers. In our South London area I often find these inside of decayed poplar logs above the ground, and normally adults beetles can be found in the same rotten log with the larvae. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The least stag beetle, <i>Sinodendron cylindricum</i>, despite that it belongs to the <i>lucanidae family</i>, looks more like a rhino beetle. The photo shows a (dead) female of the species which was found in Mitcham park in South London.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The lesser stag beetle, <i>Dorcus parallelipipedus</i> male looks as a smaller version of the minor male of <i>lucanus cervus cervus</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obviously it always interesting to know what <i>lucanidae</i> species is the larvae that you found. However, because the larvae (particularly the smaller one) of all <i>lucanidae</i> look pretty much the same, it is very difficult to determine to which species the larvae belong to. This is particularly applicable for the <i>d</i></span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">orcus parallelipipedus</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and <i>lucanus cervus cervus</i>, as the late L3 larvae of the DP could be as big as early to mid L3 larvae of the LCC. Considering the fact that DP is an abundant widespread species and normally live in the same areas as LCC this could be quite an issue. However, apparently it is still possible to identify the larvae of the common UK's <i>lucanidae</i> by comparing the shape of their last (terminal) segments. Here I came across the diagram published by T.E. Leiler in 1950 which could be useful:)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The diagram below shows the caudal and ventral view of the last segments of common lucanidae larvae</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Leiler, T.E. (1950) Bestimmungstabelle der schwedischen Lucanidenlarven (Coleoptera). </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Opuscula Entomologica,</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;"> 15, 157–160.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: start;">Contact email: </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">beetlesaspets@gmail.com</span></b></span><br />
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PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-54538019131181916002015-01-25T06:51:00.001-08:002015-01-25T06:51:45.796-08:00The Western Hercules Beetle, Dynastes Granti, breeding report<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some time ago I purchased 3 late L3 larvae of <i>Dynastes granti</i> as an impulsive buy:). One larvae died in a few days and the other two successfully molted into the pupae after the month or so. I did not check their sex initially, so was a bit disappointed as they both turned out to be females. By the time they eclosed into adults, it was winter here in the UK and purely out of pity I purchased the male from Asia for something like 5 times its normal "seasonal" price. Luckily, we had a few relatively warm days here, during which he arrived safely. Here is the brief breeding report.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Setup and adults:</b> A 40 litre plastic box filled with garden soil/peat/rotten oak wood and leaves mixture. Wood and leaves were mulched well into small particles and mixed with soil (garden soil/peat mixture), with 1:9 ratio. Bottom 15 cm layer was pressed firmly. Top of the soil was covered with small logs, sticks and leaves. I used my beetle jelly recipe (http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/jelly-for-tropical-beetles-at-home.html ) and ripe banana sprinkled with diluted honey for adults, which they loved and consumed lots of it. The temperature was 25C day and night. The box had only a few small holes, so the humidity in the container was high all the time. Once the females became active they started to come out and feed. The male was guarding food and and stayed close to the feeder all the time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Eggs:</b> I made the first dig after about 8 weeks when the females became active and started feeding. I dug up 50 eggs. The majority of the eggs were deposited very close to the bottom of the container, some of them were literally at the plastic bottom of the container. I rearranged the soil in the box and let the beetles into the container again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After another 6 weeks when the male </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">died and the food was not </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">touched for a several days I made another dig and discovered that both females were dead and removed another 38 eggs from the soil. I was pretty satisfied with my results obtaining 88 eggs from two females. Interestingly, it may take ages for eggs of </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">dynastes granti</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to hatch; first eggs started to hatch after about 8 weeks, while some hatched only after 6-8 MONTHS!!! Some of my larvae were solid L3, when the late eggs just hatched. </span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JPC49n3xGCc/VLG5WhC_tAI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/Bh5-NGAjhUA/s1600/DSC01622a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JPC49n3xGCc/VLG5WhC_tAI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/Bh5-NGAjhUA/s1600/DSC01622a.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Larvae:</b> The larvae of the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Western Hercules beetle turned out to be pretty hardy, similarly to the Eastern Hercules beetle (<i>dynastes tityus</i>) larvae. I tried both oak rotten wood and decayed oak leaves substrates and they were doing just fine. Moreover, I even switched the substrate during the development of the small group of larvae, and observed that it did not affect their development </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">drastically</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. I also had very low die out percentage of the larvae; may be just one or two out of the whole lot. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found the breeding and rearing of these species quite easy. The only </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">pity is that such beautiful beetles do not live long as adults, just about 3-5 months.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Initially it was very confusing for me how to call these beetles correctly: <i>mecynorrhina torquata</i> or <i>mecynorrhina ugandensis</i>. It was a bit easier with a similar green beetle with no white stripes in the centre on the top called <i>mecynorrhina torquata immacullicollis</i>, which was one of my first beetles. Later I found out that according to (one of the) latest classification the <i>mecynorrhina torquata</i> has at least 4 subspecies: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>immacullicollis</i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, <i>poggei</i>, <i>torquata</i> and <i>ugandensis</i>. So the full names of these subspecies will be </span><i><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">mecynorrhina torquata </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">immacullicollis</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">mecynorrhina torquata </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">poggei, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">mecynorrhina torquata </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">torquata and </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">mecynorrhina torquata </span></b></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>ugandensis</b></i>. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I knew that <i>ugandensis</i> and <i>torquata</i> can easily interbreed and produce fertile offspring so there was not much of a surprise there:). The existence of <i>m.t. torquata</i> and <i>m.t. poggei</i> was new information to me, although I saw the brown <i>m.t.</i> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">advertised as <i>m.t. </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>immacullicollis</i>, which would fit into the description of <i>m.t.t</i> subspecies</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. Here I came across a wonderful map of the distribution of all 4 subspecies plus another popular related beetle from the same genus, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>mecynorrhina oberthueri ssp.</i> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Unfortunately, I cannot find the original resource, so if anyone knows it's German source, please let me know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is quite obvious that </span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mecynorrhina </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">torquata </span></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>ugandensis</i> (often called </span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mecynorrhina </span></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>ugandensis</i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">) and </span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mecynorrhina </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">torquata </span></i><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">immacullicollis </i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(often called </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Mecynorrhina </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">torquata</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">) are the most popular species kept by hobbyists and breeders. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">Mecynorrhina </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">torquata </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>ugandensis </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">has a massive variety of colourations and therefore is the most sought after by collectors, particularly large male specimens. Someone even said that there are no two </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Mecynorrhina ugandensis</i> of the identical colour and pattern in the wild:)</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U4tTJMSXZGc/U7iQvNS3ZpI/AAAAAAAAANM/NcA_9e_Fj6o/s1600/140620141545a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U4tTJMSXZGc/U7iQvNS3ZpI/AAAAAAAAANM/NcA_9e_Fj6o/s1600/140620141545a.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recently obtained a few goliath beetles, Goliathus Orientalis Preissi, Origin: Tanzania. Hopefully will get some grubs from them:) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two good sized females eating banana...</span>PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665797427115545742.post-4104519623924424202014-05-21T13:41:00.000-07:002014-05-21T13:41:06.173-07:00A stag beetle lamprima adolphinae larvae for sale<span style="color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Some L2 larvae of a tropical stag beetle Lamprima adolphinae available for sale</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Parents- Blue female vs blue green male</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">Care similar as for the rainbow stag beetle</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">£7 each or £6 if you buy 10 larvae , parents photos here</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7319/13018913635_64b01e0ce4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7319/13018913635_64b01e0ce4.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">please email me, if you are interested</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.1875px;">beetlesaspets@gmail.com</span></span>PetBeetlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02440954153138359426noreply@blogger.com0