A Couple of Nice Finds!

So yesterday I went out looking for some interesting bugs in the field behind my house, before it's completely razed down to the ground for more houses... At first I wasn't finding anything interesting, but there was a pile of old wooden planks on the ground next to a badger burrow. Objects like this on the ground make for perfect cover for a wide variety of invertebrates, and given the size of the planks, I was hoping some larger genera like Eleodes might be hiding under them... Well, I was right! 😁
I found two Eleodes species, one adult female of each to be exact. We'll cover the larger of the two here first; a female Eleodes obscura!

Now I found males of this species near my house last year, but didn't see any females. This year I've lucked out and found an adult female, hopefully mated, (if I see any males I'll nab one though, unless the female has already oviposited fertile eggs by then).

I've had a group of this species before, but never got my females to oviposit, (all larvae in their enclosure somehow ended up being E.hispilabris larvae). That could have been for any number of reasons, but I suspect they didn't like plain coconut fiber much for oviposition, probably need some sand mixed in... They also had poor ventilation in their enclosure though, which may have caused problems as well, (they didn't live all that long come to think of it).
So I'll try plain coconut fiber again for a couple weeks, and if I see no signs of oviposition, I'll get some sand and give her a good 50/50 mix, which would probably get her ovipositing.

Here are some pictures of her, she's a fairly small female, but this species can get really big and really heavy, hoping to rear up some monster sized individuals myself!

Hopefully she does well and lays some eggs for me! 😄

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Now, for the individual I'm most excited about, I was lucky enough to actually find an adult female Eleodes nigrina! 😁 I've only seen two males of this species before, never an adult female! This species is quite uncommon here, so I'm hoping this female is both mated, and will prove easy to get to oviposit, I've never bred a species from this particular subgenus before! (Eleodes subgenus Metablapylis).

I'll set her up on a standard coconut fiber substrate, and add sand if she refuses to oviposit, (this is my general strategy for breeding Eleodes, usually works well).

Here are some pictures of her:

Quite excited to breed this species, hopefully I can do so successfully! 😀

Well, that's gonna be it for this post everyone, I hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay distanced, and I'll see you all next time! 😉