So the larvae in my Triorophus/Trimytis enclosure have been growing very well, with minimal cannibalism, if any has occured at all. They are in fact starting to pupate already, I've got 4-5 pupa so far, and judging by the pupal shape it seems that most, if not all of these larvae are indeed Triorophus. I would have been happy with getting offspring from either species, but the Triorophus were definitely the ones I wanted to breed more, so I'm stoked that they've bred for me! 😁
Here are some pics of a couple large larvae and a pupa:
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| Large larva |
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| Pupa |
Hopefully I'll be posting pics of teneral adults in just a couple weeks! 😉
Now onto some sad news... Unfortunately I was unable to rear ANY of my Tenebrionidae sp. "Boise" larvae to adulthood... So I'll never be sure what species they were. 😣 I don't know exactly why they failed for me, most of them died in the pre-pupal stage, and seem to require substrate that is neither very humid or bone dry... I do highly suspect they were Opatroides punctulatus, but that's just speculation for now.
Next up, some bittersweet Cryptoglossa muricata news. Out of the 8 larvae I produced at the beginning of the year, only three remained after my transition period here at my grandparents' house (which I moved to at the end of September). I attribute this to overwatering the large larvae I was trying to pupate, and the lack of adequate heat since my grandparents' house is much colder than the hotel I was living in for the first half of the year. Thankfully though I've just bought a new 39 ft heat cable, and my new bug closest is quite warm now! 😁
Two of my remaining larvae pupated, and one has eclosed already. The third larvae actually looks like it's dying due to some bacterial infection, possibly also a result of overwatering, or just a random fluke. So it looks like I'm only getting two adults this generation, a rather low yield but understandable given the rough transition they had to go through right as they were all getting ready to pupate...
Here are some pics of my recently eclosed, still teneral adult:
Hopefully at least one more adult will follow this year, and fingers crossed next year I can really ramp up their production.
Unfortunately it would seem I messed up with my Asbolus mexicanus mexicanus as well. I initially housed them with my Eleodes hispilabris, since I though the Eleodes larvae would serve as good food for the Asbolus larvae... However it would appear that the Eleodes larvae might be eating the Asbolus eggs, as I haven't found new Asbolus eggs nor larvae in a month or two now, just tons of Eleodes. To make matters worse, all the eggs I isolated died save one, that hatched into a deformed larva... They seem to be super fragile as eggs and also don't like it humid, but don't love bone dry conditions either. So yeah, kind of a bummer, but I'll keep trying, these things live quite a long time so I'm confident I can get more offspring out of them, just gotta separate the from my E.hispilsbris.
Lastly, an update on the Alaus cross breeding situation. The zunianus died recently, and from the genitalia my friends confirmed that it was actually a male... Which means the lusciosus it paired with is indeed a female. However, again their two pairings lasted way longer than normal and they seemed to have difficulty disconnecting both times, and said female has actually not produced a single egg since mating with this zunianus... So her ovipositor either got damaged while mating, or these two species simply can't hybridize... Either way, works for me, I didn't really want hybrid Alaus larvae anyways... 😅
Might as well share the genitalia pics I got of my zunianus male:
And with that, we are done with today's long post! 😅 Thanks for reading, I hope you all enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see everyone next time! 😉
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