New Darklings from Fort Stockton, TX! (Pt. 1)

Thanks to my friend Gabe Shaheen (AKA outdoorsansuch on IG), I have received several new species of Texas Tenebrionids to try and breed! 😁 The two species we'll be covering today are technically species I've bred before, but are different subspecies/forms than the types native to Idaho.

Let's start off with the Eleodes obscura glabriuscula I got! Gabe sent two sexed pairs of these beasties, and man are they big! While I have worked with E.o.sulcipennis before, and have failed to breed them twice now, the ones found here in ID need a winter diapause as large larvae, hence my most recent failure. Whereas these south Texas E.o.glabriuscula should not need any sort of diapause, and thus should be easier, in theory... There still is the chance that pupae will have a low survival rate due to intolerance of excess humidity in their pupal cells, but hopefully the die off won't be that severe if I care for them right...

The difference between this subspecies and sulcipennis is that sulcipennis have fairly deep grooves in their elytra, whereas these glabriuscula merely have irregular lines of fine, shallow pits on their elytra. glabriuscula are also much more glossy in appearance than sulcipennis are. This is the dominant subspecies in west Texas, and they seem to get just as big, if not bigger than their northern sulcipennis cousins. 

I've got my two pairs set up in a well ventilated container with a substrate mix of sand and coconut fiber an inch or so deep. I am keeping one third of the enclosure humid, the rest dry. There are some bark pieces and cardboard rolls on top for them to climb on and hide under. For food I'll be offering dog food and maybe fruit every now and then.

Here are some pictures of a pair:

Female

Male

Very impressive darklings, E.obscura is one of my favorite Eleodes, really hope I can breed this subspecies successfully! 😃

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Now on to my new Eleodes hispilabris, specifically the "South Texas Race", formerly known as "forma nupta". This form of E.hispilabris is much different than the "Pacific Northwest Race" (formerly known as "forma laevis") here in Idaho, and in pretty much the same way that the E.o.glabriuscula are different from the E.o.sulcipennis. The "PNW Race" I find here in Idaho have shallow but obvious grooves running down the length of their elytra, whereas the "South Texas Race" have lines of fine pitting going down their elytra. The "South Texas Race" is also far glossier in appearance than the "PNW Race", and a bit bigger too.

What I'm most excited about though is the fact that this is one of the races/localities that throws out the odd adult with a red stripe going down the suture of their elytra!!! I've long been jealous of the hispilabris in other states that regularly produce such individuals, I have seen dozens and dozens of WC and CB E.hispilabris from Idaho, and they've all been jet black. But a couple of the females in my "South Texas Race" group have dull, but noticeable red stripes going down their backs! 😍 Hopefully the offspring of this group continue to produce such individuals, I may try to isolate a true breeding "red-back" morph of this species in the future when I have more space to do so, (don't know if that's possible, but I'll try).

I've got my group of 10 or so adults set up in a well ventilated container with a substrate mix of sand and coconut fiber an inch or so deep. I am keeping one third of the enclosure moist, the rest dry. There are some long fibered sphagnum moss pieces and and cardboard rolls on top for them to climb on and hide under. For food I'll be offering dog food.

Here are some pictures of these new additions!

Female with red stripe

Fingers crossed these are just as easy to breed as the "PNW Race" of E.hispilabris, that would be awesome! 😄

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, but stay tuned for part two coming up in a couple days! Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you next time! 😉