feeding female Lucanus elephus

K

kevink

Fresh Imago
This week, my female elephus has appeared from her hiding place underneath the chunkier substrate I put her in after she became an adult.

Today was the second appearance, that I've seen, and I don't miss much with my livestock.

Anyway, today I gave her some beetle jelly, and saw her eating it. I also am aware that female elephus are predators, I don't have any

spare beetle grubs for her to munch on, will she eat mealworms? Or is there another source of food I could give her so she's as healthy

as possible?

 
Oak said:
Where did you hear that they were predators? They are fine with just beetle jelly. 
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I think there is a reference to larval canalization by a captive adult Lucanus cervus in the recent conservation literature. If I come across it in the next several days while writing my research proposal I'll attach it here.

I'm thinking it was a fluke, so don't worry about supplying prey and use beetle jelly as advised by Oak.

Good luck on the L elaphus culture!

 
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The subject is addressed in Mcmonigle's Ultimate Guide to Breeding Beetles. But he doesn't go into a lot of detail.

One direct quote "in nature,females pin down prey in rotten wood" he goes on to mention mundoworm pupa (zophobas morio).

He continues with a couple liquid recipes and other feeding technique.

 
Perhaps, but that's why I'm asking other breeders here. Mcmonigle is a generalist, albeit, he covers a lot of insect subjects and it's

difficult for anyone under the age of 120, to be an expert on everything.

I get my information from books, my experiences and the experiences of others, and people will invariably have different experiences and 

methods that are successful doing the exact same thing. That's one of the first things anyone doing anything requiring specialized knowledge

finds out.. Maybe there's only one way to use a skilsaw, but there are a number of different ways to get a board cut.

I have a small library,I think it's useful, even 50 year old books, but things change, and more people are raising beetles and finding

things out that nobody knew 5 or 10 years ago. That's where I find the internet useful, a very broad spectrum of people.The first mistake

people make, is being closed minded or thinking they have all the answers. No one person does.

 
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