A begginer's guide to beetle breeding

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.

Why beetles?

In my opinion they are :
     very unusual and often fascinating/spectacular looking insects,
     most of them are quite easy too keep and raise to adults, so you  can observe their development, which is amazing!

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.

 What species to start with?

3 most popular groups of beetles in breeding are:
a) flower (scarabs) beetles (family of scarab beetles, Scarabaeoidea; subfamily Cetoniinae; such as Pachnoda ssp, Dicronorrhina ssp, Mecynorrhina ssp, Goliathus ssp),
b) rhino beetles (family of scarab beetles, Scarabaeoidea; subfamily Dynastinae, such as Megasoma ssp or Dynastes ssp)
c) stag beetles (family such as Lucanus ssp or Dorcus ssp).

Some other beetles that people also keep are
d) darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae)
e) dung beetles (from subfamily Scarabaeinae)
f) ground predatory beetles (family Carabidae, such as tiger beetles (Cicindela ssp)
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.
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 :(.

How many stages of development does beetle have?

Beetles have 4 stages of their life cycle:
 (1) an egg;  (2) a larva;  (3) a pupa;  (4) an adult beetle (imago)
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)
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.

What food does an adult beetle need?

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
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.

What general conditions adult beetles require?

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.
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.

What food do larvae need?

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.
   Here is a detailed post about the most common substrates used for beetle larvae.
http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-brief-and-hopefully-comprehensive.html
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.

How to prepare a beetle breeding setup?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Other small but important things

What is F0 F1, F2,  Fn...... generation?

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. 

How long do adult beetles live?

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.

Can larvae or adult beetles be cannibalistic?

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.

How many larvae to start with?

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.

What is the inactive period for adult beetles?

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.

More to come

Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis colour variations

Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis 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 Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis which I found on my flickr, phone and computer.

 

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

Beware! 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.

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.

Goliathus orientalis preissi broken pupal cell and artificial puaption chamber

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.

Cyclommatus Metallifer

A Stag beetle, Cyclommatus Metallifer, family Lucanidae 

The origin of this stag beetle is jungles of certain islands of Indonesia (Sulawesi, Peleng, Sangir,  Bangkulu, Sula, Bachan, Halmahera and Morotai).  It is even considered that the different population of these islands are of different subspecies.  The males of these beetles can reach 9 centimeters (reported record is of 100 mm) in length, of which more than half are mandibles  equipped with spines which male uses in battles with other males to win female's attention. Females, in turn, are rather small and rarely exceed 3 centimeters in size. The males of these beetles have beautiful metallic-brown colouration which at right light angle appears as a golden-brown one. These beetles are quite popular in beetle breeders as well as with amateur hobbyists because of their attractive looks and by easiness in care.  The development from an egg to imago (adult beetles) can  take 9-11 months, but from my experience this term could be shorter if grubs are kept at higher temperatures. The larvae of these beetles are not cannibalistic so they can be kept together in larger containers under condition that sufficient amount of feeding substrate is provided. It is also reported that fungi based kinshi substrate bottles are not really suitable for rearing larvae of these beetles and fermented wood flake substrate needs to be used.   

A major male of Indonesian stag beetle   Cyclommatus Metallifer, captive bred almost 80 mm.

Rearing and breeding tips.  

Food for imago

These beetles seem do not like any "harder food" and any liquid food is more acceptable for them. In my experience they prefer liquid food, such as liquid from juicy ripe fruits such as sweet oranges or clementines even to popular beetle jelly, available at various pet shops. A watermelon and a melon, any sweet apple,  half of a grape or a sharon fruit will be also fine.  Just mush top of the fruit slice with a teaspoon to allow juice to come out of flesh of fruits. This seems help beetles to obtain the juice that they needed.  Try use some sort or tray for the fruits, and do not put them directly on a substrate as it will accelerate their moulding. I am using plastic milk caps for this purpose. Lightly moulded fruits are still fine, as they still have some sugars in them and beetles still enjoy them.   To obtain juice from fruits beetles piercing the fruit's flesh with their “feathery mouthpart bits” which are called galeae in the scientific language. I normally also put a few drops of water sweetened with brown sugar or honey. This seems stimulate beetles to start feeding. Sometimes,  initially it  requires to put a beetle on the top of the food encouraging it to feed. Although the discussions between expert breeders whether some imago stags need protein supply in their diet are not conclusive, you may still want to increase the protein content in their diet. I would not recommend adding any "yogurt"; as using plain ripe banana mash will perfectly work for this purpose.  Banana has relatively high protein content (up to 6%) so banana well mashed with some still water sweetened with brown sugar or honey will work just fine.  

Mating

After you have obtained a pair of these beetles it is the best if you can visually confirm that the pair has mated.  This can be done by placing male and female into a mating container which is a small clear plastic box with some substrate and a few pieces of wood which would allow beetles to hang on it. This allows to observe the mating easily. Best way is to put a hungry female on top of a fruit slice and while she is feeding on it, gently place a male on top of her. Male needs to be well-fed  beforehand, otherwise meal would be his first and only goal:).  Female will eat and go into a hide and male still will be busy with his meal:) Sometimes female is not interested in mating, if it is not mature enough or possibly because she feels that the mating box is not suitable for her to lay the eggs. If mating does not occur for some time, the female can be placed directly into an egg laying container with 1 or 2 males in it. In my experience the dominant male normally takes place near the provided food, and often the one who lives longest. Males will also often fight for the dominance, which often leads to a premature death of a weaker male.  

Egg laying setup. 

Female of this beetle will lay eggs into softer parts of the dead wood collected in the forest.  In my experience the female would prefer oak to other kind of trees, but beech and other trees such as ash or poplar could be also fine for egg laying.  It is considered that wood for the majority stag beetle species should not be very hard and should not be very soft too. You should be able to scratch it easily with a nail, but is should not be very hard.  With these beetles I have been finding eggs even in substrate, but not in logs.  female would chew a 1-5 cm hole long hole about 1 cm deep and fill it with chewed pieces of wood until it forms a clump. The ovum normally is in the middle of the clump.  My setup is normally a 25-30L plastic box, filled with garden soil from the bottom (10 cm pressed hard), then 2-3 logs (8-15 cm diameter, 10-30 cm long ) all covered with foul white wood mixed with soil so the substrate just cover logs.  The humidity is high, with a few small holes in the side of the container. Fresh food needs to be placed  regularly to keep female active and make her lay more eggs. Female usually would come out at night, unless she is very hungry.  Optimal temperature is around 22-25 C, however, females will lay eggs even at 16-18 C.

Rearing larvae. 

After about 3-4 months logs are carefully removed and inspected.  The female most likely will be dead by this time. Logs are carefully split with hands or using a screwdriver and grubs are removed.  Grubs are placed into containers with fermented wood individually, although they can be kept together and separated when they reach late L3 stage. Larva of this beetle species are not cannibalistic and it was reported of successful raising several larvae until imago in same container. I usually mulch original wood logs where larva initially lived and mix it with fermented wood flakes (30/70%), by this transferring some beneficial bacteria that helps larva to digest cellulose.  

L2 Cyclommatus Metallifer larva in split log. Logs needs to be split carefully and larva needs is traced by by following the holes in he wood. Also some larva may leave in the substrate of the breeding container, so the substrate also needs to be checked carefully. Please note shape of the last segment characteristic for various stag beetles (Lucanidae) species

Clear deli cups 0.3-0.6L is convenient for this purpose, as they allow to observe larvae's activity. Grubs tend to eat substrate close to the sides of the containers so it helps in checking on their development and providing food supplements. If you want to obtain bigger adults, some high protein food supplement such as dog food needs to be provided. I use Bakers Meaty Meals chunky pellets,which are relatively dry but soft and 

  they are not getting mouldy very quickly compared to fish flakes or some other additives. Often larva would not eat a pellet, unless it is placed right in front of it. I make hole in substrate with pencil and place about a quarter of the pellet next to the larva. After about 3 months about 50 percents of the substrate is replaced with fresh fermented wood. Depending on the temperature and conditions it may take as little as 8 months to obtain imago of the beetle. The larvae normally pupate close to the side of the container, so it's activity could be observed. In my experience, I had much higher rate or survival during molting to imago if pupa transferred into the artificial pupa chamber which could be easily made at home (I will illustrate this in a future post).

Female (left) of the Cyclommatus Metallifer is chased by the male (right)

To see more photos of beetles, please visit my flickr page at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/radio_ga_ga/?details=1

You can also contact me via beetlesaspets@gmail.com

regarding availability of these beetles for sale or exchange.