Hisserdude

Oh neat, hope you can breed them!

100% none of those people have permits for them... It's nearly impossible for pet hobbyists to get the permits needed to keep exotic beetles, and that's just a fact. However the USDA has been very lax in enforcing the laws regarding keeping exotic scarabs for the last decade, and so for the past few years exotics have been smuggled into the US and are being kept illegally on a an increasingly larger and larger scale. Without more funding it'd be extremely difficult or impossible for the USDA/APHIS to actually do anything about it now, so they seem to be just letting it slide for the time being and focusing on more high concern, agriculture damaging invert groups. California has a weird legal loophole where you can keep exotic stag beetles legally, and Goliathus are legalized in the US, but that's about it for exotics here. Unless you work at a museum, for a university, etc., you can't get the permits needed to legally keep most exotic beetles.

That is indeed a Grig, from that area of OR it should be Cyphoderris monstrosa. I've always wanted to breed these, never been able to find any here in ID though. I'd offer it a variety of foods such as dog food, fruits, prekilled insects and perhaps pollen as well. If you find more and are able to share, lemme know! 😉

Welcome to the forum!

One of the largest US darklings, quite bulky and also very easy to rear and forgiving compared to their more finicky relative, Eleodes spinipes ventricosa. Lovely species, males are relatively skinny and have noticeable elytral extensions (mucros), whereas females are pretty rotund. A very nice darkling species for sure, one I hope will stay established in culture for years to come.

Very cute little species that's fairly easy to breed. They need a sand substrate, larvae prefer digging through dry substrate, usually near the surface, but create their pupal cells in moist, compressed substrate. I've been able to breed these for a couple generations now, pretty hardy and long lived Tenebs. When adults are kept dry and not touched, they develop a waxy coating that makes them look very much like a blueberry or huckleberry. Well, that's pretty much the complete life cycle of this species, minus the eggs (which I've never seen and are likely very very small).

Welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy it here!

I've not gotten to work with A.verrucosus myself yet, but from what I hear they're VERY similar in husbandry to the Cryptoglossa muricatum I breed. Like it a bit humid as larvae and pupae, typical sandy substrate, 80+ F° for pupation, etc..

No, it's not OK, stop sharing pictures of your cool Prionids and making certain people jealous... 😡😜

Yeah the larva in the picture I posted is of a Triorophus sp., which is also in the Tribe Edrotini, so I'd assume Edrotes would have similar looking larvae.

I'm breeding Asbolus mexicanus mexicanus and have bred (and am still breeding) Cryptoglossa muricatum, I'm working on refining my husbandry for those before writing a caresheet or anything, but in general Cryptoglossini seem to find sandy substrates for the best oviposit rates, and the larvae of all of them are very photosensitive and protein hungry, and readily cannibalize each other. Burying dry dog food and such in the substrate of the main breeding setup can help, but overall isolating larvae is best for maximum survival. When mature, larvae will need to be kept at 80F° or above to induce pupation, this is the most tricky part. Most Cryptoglossini can handle pretty humid substrates larvae and pupae and may actually prefer it, but A.m.mexicanus for example loath humid substrate, but still need stable, compressed substrate to make pupal cells in, so mixing in some clay with their sand is necessary for that species. I might try Edrotes again at some point for sure, so I'll keep that in mind.

Hmm, interesting. How did you know they were Edrotes rather than Eleodes or Asbolus? They look weird like this?

What exactly was the substrate? Sand, sand mixed with something else, coco fiber, etc? And how humid did you keep the substrate?

Really??? How exactly did you set them up? Substrate, temps, humidity, etc?

I have caresheets for Eleodes and Embaphion: https://idcaresheets.blogspot.com/2020/05/eleodes-spp.html?m=1 https://idcaresheets.blogspot.com/2019/12/embaphion-muricatum-contusum.html?m=1 Edrotes so far have proven impossible to get to oviposit in captivity, lots have tried, none have succeeded. They may actually require a host plant growing in their setup to get them to breed, in the wild adults Edrotes have been seen feeding on saltgrass (Distichlis spicata), non-native cheat grass (Bromus tectorum), Russian thistle (Salsola kali), & wild onion (Allium sp.). They might lay their eggs at the bases of said plants, just a hunch of mine. As for Stenomorpha, JSYK their adults only live a few months naturally, and will lay in a sandy clay substrate mixture. However, the larvae are soft bodied and highly cannibalistic, and must be separated if you want a decent amount to survive until adulthood.

Congrats, that's awesome! 😁

Takes about a year to a year and a half under optimal conditions and consistent feeding. I don't have these available ATM, might have them FS next year. I do have larvae of a similar species available though, Deilelater physoderus. https://beetleforum.net/topic/6004-fs-bioluminescent-click-beetle-us-darkling-larvae/

Welcome to the forum!

Best of luck!

Well a pair of them matured a few months ago and have already started making lots of little babies. 😁 Here are some pics of one of my larger larvae (which I still have 14 of), and my adult pair. Large larva: Adult male: Adult female: And here's a video of my pair: https://youtube.com/shorts/-nQQvZ0pjaE?feature=share

Those kinds of field guides often have errors when it comes to these more obscure species/genera sad to say... And I'm not positive the species in Evan's field guide even is ID'd correctly. See Bugguide for more accurately identified specimens of that species. Also, Coelocnemis do have some variability when it comes to exoskeleton texture and sometimes shape too, it's theorized that some species closely seem to mimic the appearance of the Eleodes spp. most prevalent in their area for some reason.

Not Eleodes armata. Eleodes armata are characterized by having spines on all six femora, hence the name "armata". This actually isn't even Eleodes, rather a species of Coelocnemis, probably C.dilaticollis. Coelocnemis different from Eleodes in having golden hairs on the underside of their tibiae and tarsi, and always lack femoral spines (which Eleodes usually have at least on their first pair of legs). They're also way harder to breed since their larvae are highly cannibalistic... And some Coelocnemis species may require a rotten wood substrate to induce oviposition.

Ooooh, if you find any extras this year, lemme know, I definitely wanna try and breed them.

I've been wanting to try and breed these forever, found a dead one a couple years ago... I have yet to find any live ones.

I have Eleodes spinipes macrura, would love to get your E.s.ventricosa here sometime this year though. The E.s.macrura have actually been a breeze to breed and pupate so far, minimal deaths/deformities when emerging from the pupal stage, and those have largely been due to human error anyways.