Friday, March 10, 2017

A Couple of Darkling Beetle Updates

My Coelus ciliatus are doing pretty well, they have been laying quite a few new eggs, and I have been rearing lots of the older larvae to adulthood. What's cool about these guys is that, when the adult ecloses and darkens up into an orange-ish color, it burrows up to the surface and wanders around the deli cup, making it easy to both find which ones have matured and to remove them. This species really likes leaf litter BTW, seems they prefer it over dog food!

Here is are some pictures of a newly emerged adult and it's "emergence" hole:



And here are a couple of other teneral adults:




Glad this species has been doing so well for me, I hope I'll get the chance to work with other species from this genus one day!
My Eleodes clavicornis have also been doing very well, I started with a single pair, and now I have over a dozen adults, which have been producing their own larvae too. They have not proven to be a prolific species, but they can definitely be bred over multiple generations in captivity without too much trouble.

Here are some pics I took of the adults today:





It's a very cute little species of Eleodes, one that certainly deserves a spot in any Tenebrionid enthusiast's collection!

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)
By at
Labels: ,

6 comments:

  1. Bring on the BugsMarch 10, 2017 at 10:51 PM

    Two very nice species, glad that they're doing well for you! I'm still not having much luck at all with my darklings. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Invertebrate DudeMarch 11, 2017 at 3:27 PM

      Thanks, me too! :) Sorry to hear that, the E.tribulus not breeding for you?

      Delete
    2. Bring on the BugsMarch 13, 2017 at 9:13 AM

      Yep, still have not witnessed a single pairing.:(

      Delete
    3. Invertebrate DudeMarch 13, 2017 at 8:40 PM

      That's very strange, you may have a homosexual male lol! Seriously though, if they were both males, you'd see mating activity, since males usually try to mate with anything that moves, and you definitely don't have two females, since females lack mucros, so don't know why they aren't breeding, maybe it's too cool for them to breed? What temps are they being kept at?

      Delete
    4. Bring on the BugsMarch 16, 2017 at 11:55 AM

      Hopefully not! lol That's really the only possibility that I can think of, they're being kept at the same temps as the rest of my inverts(65-71). I'm really considering saving up my cash to develop an efficient heating system like Kyle has, some metal racks with a large heat lamp warming everything on them.

      Delete
    5. Invertebrate DudeMarch 17, 2017 at 7:20 PM

      Yeah, that is a bit low, once it gets a little bit warmer they may start breeding. I've also noticed that some wild caught darklings will only lay eggs in the spring and summer, as that is what their biological clocks are set to, so that could be another reason that they aren't breeding.

      If I had more room that's totally how I'd be heating my inverts, once I move to a bigger place I'm hoping to get that kind of system set up. :)

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)