I love me a mystery invert LOL, especially the type where I have to rear something up to find out what they are, makes me feel like the poor man's Charley Eiseman or something. 😜 I found some darkling beetle larvae under a piece of cement under a tree in the parking lot of our hotel... and I am not at all familiar with them, so it's not a species I've ever bred before.
Based on their basic appearance, they are clearly something in the Tenebrioninae IMO, and I have a hunch they are in the tribe Opatrini since they remind me of oversized Blapstinus spp. larvae. They might be Opatroides punctulatus larvae, as I've noticed those becoming more and more abundant in the Boise area of Idaho, but the couple adults I've kept never bred for me, so I don't know what their larvae look like (google was no help there either). So they might just be larvae of a species I've seen before, but at least if they are I'll at least be able to document some of their life cycle, and maybe actually breed them this time, since I collected five of these larvae. Or, maybe they are of a species I've never seen before, which would be awesome, especially if they were a native one!
Whatever they are, I have the five of them housed in a well ventilated enclosure with a substrate of coconut fiber an inch or so deep, which I'm keeping half humid, half dry. I'll offer dog food as their staple diet, and keep them at room temps.
Based on their basic appearance, they are clearly something in the Tenebrioninae IMO, and I have a hunch they are in the tribe Opatrini since they remind me of oversized Blapstinus spp. larvae. They might be Opatroides punctulatus larvae, as I've noticed those becoming more and more abundant in the Boise area of Idaho, but the couple adults I've kept never bred for me, so I don't know what their larvae look like (google was no help there either). So they might just be larvae of a species I've seen before, but at least if they are I'll at least be able to document some of their life cycle, and maybe actually breed them this time, since I collected five of these larvae. Or, maybe they are of a species I've never seen before, which would be awesome, especially if they were a native one!
Whatever they are, I have the five of them housed in a well ventilated enclosure with a substrate of coconut fiber an inch or so deep, which I'm keeping half humid, half dry. I'll offer dog food as their staple diet, and keep them at room temps.
Here are some pictures of the larvae:
It'll be interesting seeing what they become, I gotta say it was a surprise seeing darkling beetle larvae in such an urban setting, more specifically darkling larvae I wasn't familiar with! 😄 I'll be sure to keep ya'll updated on these, hopefully I can rear them all to maturity successfully!
Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all soon! 😉
Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all soon! 😉
Man, I'm impressed you can identify them down to that level, eve if it is tentative. My conclusion would be 'they're definitely something mealwormish'.
ReplyDeleteI hope they reveal their secrets before too long.
I just stare at darkling beetle larvae too much LOL, I've kept almost 50 different species from almost every subfamily native to the US, so I can ID most larvae at least down to subfamily now lol! XD
DeleteThanks, I hope so too!