Goliathus on the loose

Purely by an accident I spotted my like yesterday-still-dormant Goliathus orientalis preissi 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:)

Big hopes for this specimen as he is from a different line than my females, so hopefully he will assist in production of F1 offspring!

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:)))

Finally he capitulated and was transferred into an individual box!

Freshly eclosed goliathus orientalis preissi males are absolutely stunning: white, black and very dark red, please see the photo number 3

Please contact me at beetlesaspets@gmail.com regarding any related issue or availability of the larvae of these species.  

A giant rhino beetle, megasoma gyas porioni

A relatively new to my collection, Megasoma gyas porioni from Brasil.   The beetles are really magnificent, very similar to Megasoma elephas elephas 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 Megasoma elephas elephas larvae before, I tried the same substrate with Megasoma gyas porioni 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 M. elephas, which are quite short-lived, adult  M. gyas porioni 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!

Please contact me at beetlesaspets@gmail.com regarding any related issue or larvae availability.