Horned fungus beetles breeding again!

B

Bugboy3092

Strategus
Ahh, as spring is starting to finally sweep the air, so is the breeding season for my horned fungus beetles! Ive noticed them starting to lay eggs, and Im very glad the colony has made it through the winter. Once summer rolls around, I will likely start selling some of these guys again (more on that later though). This year I plan to start breeding more species of fungus beetles (especially darklings). I plan to start with Penthe Pimelia (no common name), does anyone have any advice on this species?

 
Ooo, Penthe is one of my drool-list beetles!

Sadly, no online PDFs exist that detail the captive care of Penthe species. It is all guesswork from here.

Best bet: find a colony of Penthe in the wild, and carefully observe what species and how moist the host is (some fungus beetles are specialists and do not accept wrong fungi). Also take detailed notes of surrounding environment, behavior, etc. and try to replicate that in captivity. You may also want to look at bugguide pics of both Penthe species to get a vague idea of its host range. Do note that some fungi may be suitable for adult eating but not reproduction.

If Penthe turns out to be a species that uses soft watery poly pores for breeding, these instructions are probably good:

http://beetleforum.net/forums/index.php?s=ad7c70bedf3ac38fb84df9782d9d2690&showtopic=3530

Some links which may be useful (beware, some advice may be very false or harmful for Penthe, these are only suggestions)

https://bugguide.net/node/view/100833

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47935050_Collecting_and_rearing_fungivorous_Coleoptera

 
Thanks! I’ve found these guys a few times and they don’t seem to specialized, I actually have a somewhat large “collection” of their host fungus (I find them there most, and have even attracted a few) with one of the conks being 15 pounds (before it dried)! I’m not sure if they’re penthe, or a different species I had in the cage, but I found two larvae (not maggots) similar to other fungivorous darklings (I keep forgetting that they aren’t darklings lol) and I’m hoping they are. Also, if you want any of these guys I could spare a few, or get you more in the summer.

 
Bugboy3092 said:
Thanks! Ive found these guys a few times and they dont seem to specialized, I actually have a somewhat large collection of their host fungus (I find them there most, and have even attracted a few) with one of the conks being 15 pounds (before it dried)! Im not sure if theyre penthe, or a different species I had in the cage, but I found two larvae (not maggots) similar to other fungivorous darklings (I keep forgetting that they arent darklings lol) and Im hoping they are. Also, if you want any of these guys I could spare a few, or get you more in the summer.
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What types of fungi were they? Shrooms? Hard polypores? Watery polypores? Blob-formers? They may not be specialists, but such info could still be valuable to those of us who dont have Penthe in our forests. For example, if they like soft edible shrooms a lot, rearing grubs on market shrooms may become a quick and efficient strategy.
Im also curious about how damp their shelters are and any other such info you have (more precise and more data always = better).

Also, I have no intentions of buying any Penthe right now. My coccinellids and senile Cotinis keep me too busy! I might want to get them in the very far future, though.

 
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Thanks, I find them most on the large puffs that usually grow on live trees (I’m not really sure how to explain them, but they’re quite common) although I also find them under bark near other fungus, especially this type of (harder to find) mushroom that is harder and sturdy (that’s where you can usually find horned fungus beetles too). I saw mine mating, so hopefully eggs will be laid.

 
Bugboy3092 said:
Thanks, I find them most on the large puffs that usually grow on live trees (I’m not really sure how to explain them, but they’re quite common) although I also find them under bark near other fungus, especially this type of (harder to find) mushroom that is harder and sturdy (that’s where you can usually find horned fungus beetles too). I saw mine mating, so hopefully eggs will be laid.
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I assume that your “rare hard-bodied shroom” is a hard polypore like Ganoderma/Fomes and your large puffs are soft polypores like this: https://sp-uns.blogspot.com/2017/07/diaperis-fungus-photos.html

Correct?

 
Wow

Bugboy3092 said:
(I found one that was 15 pounds)
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But that’s a lot of fungus for parasitoids to hide in!

There’s a paper that says Bolitotherus grubs can be raised on powdered and autoclaved fungus, but not every fungus beetle has the same environmental needs as Bolitotherus.

 
Yeah I think I know the paper youre talking about (a study of the life history of the horned fungus beetle, Ohio state university) (I have it hanged on my wall lol) and dont worry, I (quite literally) torched the fungus for any pests, though I would like a colony of the wasps.

 
Bugboy3092 said:
(I have it hanged on my wall lol)
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wow
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Would Penthe grubs even survive in torched fungus, though?

Im also sure that most parasitoid wasps (velvet ants aside) would probably make boring pets.

 
True, they probably would, although it would be a great conversation starter lol. And the inside of the fungus wasn’t damaged, just the outside and any cracks.

 
Bugboy3092 said:
just the outside and any cracks.
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Pretty sure that parasitoid wasp larvae live INSIDE their victims, though, and Penthe larvae are likely burrowers. The thing with non-Bolitotherus fungus beetles: we cannot buy clean sterile polypores at the grocery, and every new lump of wild fungi carries risk of pathogens/parasitoids.

ugh!

 
Is this topic still active ? Would love to source larva. I grow bracket mushrooms (mainly reishi) for these guys normally but my cultur had a die off ;/

 
The topic has been resurrected haha, how did the culture die off? I have the culture still, and I can probably spare a few of them if you want to restart yours

 
Mine somehow got moldy, even though it has had same conditions whole time. I do a setup where I grow an actual reishi mushroom in an enclosure, and let the beetles colonise it themselves.

I would love to restart mine! Shoot me a pm here if possible

 
that might have been the case too... was my first trial at these guys. What temps do you think we could ship them in ?

 
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