Trailer for my youtube channel

    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 :).

Please also do not forget, about this post for beginners 

http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-begginers-guide-to-beetle-breeding.html

and this post about substrates

http://beetlesaspets.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-brief-and-hopefully-comprehensive.html.

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 :) 

Sexing flower beetle (cetoniidae) larvae

Sexing flower beetle (cetoniidae) larvae, such as mecynorrhina ugandensis, protaetia or goliathus is not very difficult, however, requires some practice. It is much easier when larvae are reaching their third (L3 stage). In smaller larvae, such as at their L2 larval stage, finding the "right spot" is quite difficult because of their size and because of their mobility:  small larvae are normally very active:) With some practice anyone can do it. Determining the sex of the larvae by the size of its head capsule is not reliable, simply because the smaller larvae of the same age will have the smaller head capsule, irrespectively whether it's male or female.  It is best to see it in larvae which are clean of dirt and debris. On the bottom (ventral) side approximately in the middle of the last abdomenal segment in males of cetoniidae there is a small black slit/spot which is a part of  such-called "Harold's organ" (please see the photo of the L3 male larvae of the Mecynorrhina ugandensis, on the left). The spot may often look like as a hair root spot, apart there would not be any hair growing from it. The bigger larva is the bigger the size of the spot will be. That's why it is more easier to determine the sex of bigger larvae, which also normally less mobile than smaller larvae. Females (photo on right) do not have such black spot.