I found one of these here in Idaho a few years ago, this species seems to be pretty rare in ID though, I visited the same area I found the first specimen at many times, and I was unable to find any more. According to Cody, these particular individuals were collected at the East Cactus plain wilderness study area near Bouse, AZ.
This species supposedly feeds on the leaves of several different plants as adults, (mostly native grasses), among other things, however, in captivity they seem to take the normal darkling beetle fare of dog/cat food pretty well. I will be offering them more veggies than I normally offer my darkling beetles though, we will see how they like carrots, and maybe kale too. Mostly I'll be feeding them chick feed though.
I am currently keeping them in a small/medium sized container with a coconut fiber and sand mixture for the substrate, and some moss Cody shipped them in for hiding under. I also placed some dead leaf litter on top of the substrate, in the hopes that it will help induce oviposition. I'll be keeping most of the enclosure dry, with one moist corner.
Breeding species in the subfamily Pimeliinae can be a hit and miss, some species, like Coelus, Coniontis, are easy to breed. Others, like Eusattus, many Stenomorpha species, and the commonly kept Asbolus and Cryptoglossa, are very difficult to breed. So I really don't know what to expect from these Edrotes, I'm hoping they won't be too difficult though.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the little cuties:
I will keep you guys updated on these, would be great to get this species in culture, I'm sure they would become popular among Tenebrionid enthusiasts! 😁
Anyway, that's gonna do it for today, I hope you all enjoyed, will see you guys next post! 🙂
Er, the pdf linked to the bugguide page for this says that they "seem to be strict herbivores". Maybe provide large amounts of green matter and dog/chickfood/carrots as a supplement only?
ReplyDeleteYeah, they supposedly eat mostly plant matter in the wild, I gotta tell you though, they REALLY went for that chick feed! :D I've offered them Kale too, not the best leafy greens maybe, but it's all I got. They ate a little bit of it, but there hasn't been nearly as much feeding activity compared to that of the chick feed.
DeleteThe chick feed is vegan BTW, no animal products or byproducts.
DeleteI would still recommend giving mostly green and brown leaves, because some animals, including humans, will overeat "treats" to their own detriment.
DeleteThey got plenty of dead leaves in there, and I will definitely be trying feed them veggies on a regular basis!
DeleteHere is one showing that several Eleodes eat mostly plants. https://dspace.library.colostate.edu/bitstream/handle/10217/16023/IBP142.pdf?sequence=1
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Hope you can breed those little balls of fuzz, they were my favorite species when I kept one. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, I hope so too, they are really unique little darklings! :)
DeleteI would love to see an update on your edrotes ventricosus beetles. I have been seeing these beetles for most of my life and always enjoyed watching them. I have tried before to ID them and have had no success until today when I stumbled upon your blog. Thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteI'll try and do an update on them after the next post, (which is gonna be about some new roaches I'm getting). I'll tell you right now though, so far nothing has changed. They are doing well, but no eggs have been laid yet, so either I'm doing something wrong, or they were caught too late in the season, they may only lay eggs in spring.
DeleteGlad to hear my blog was of help in identifying your Edrotes, I'm happy to see it's had a positive impact on you! :D