I don’t know if my larvae are dead or pupating.

Hello everyone, I’m new to the beetle keeping hobby and in the beginning of October I bought 4 L3 Cyclommatus Metallifer larvae. The dealer said they were around 1 month in their L3 phase.

A few days ago I noticed one of the larvae didn’t leave one particular space in the container. So I checked and he was still moving his legs, but not his body that much. Also the substrate around is has a different color and is a bit harder. Yesterday I checked again and it wasn’t moving at all. Plus he starter to change color. It is now more of a brown color. 
 

I checked my other larvae and they haven’t changed much or started pupating.

any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

 
Hi Mirten, that larva is in the pre pupal phase of it's development and that diffrent substrate is it's pupal chamber. I would recommend that you put it back inside the original pupal chamber, cover that hole with paper towel, put a little substrate on top and hope for the best. Larvae normally turn yellow and not brown when they pupate. The brown coloration usually means that it will die soon.

 
Hinice, that looks like 1 of the 6 species of Goliath beetles. For me, it looks like that the species is Goliathus goliatus. If I am completely wrong, here is a link below to a guide that may help.

 https://www.naturalhistorycuriosities.com/insects/the-6-goliath-beetle-species-and-their-facts/


Hi Mirten, that larva is in the pre pupal phase of it's development and that diffrent substrate is it's pupal chamber. I would recommend that you put it back inside the original pupal chamber, cover that hole with paper towel, put a little substrate on top and hope for the best. Larvae normally turn yellow and not brown when they pupate. The brown coloration usually means that it will die soon.
Hello, thanks for the reply. I can’t add a picture due to the file size. I just checked it and it still does not react to anything. There is a small hole in the “chamber” that I can see a bit through on the outside of the container. The part of the grub that I can see is still white. I think the brown part was light reflecting from the substrate. Anyhow I think I’m just going to keep it safe and when the other pupa emerge I’ll open this one too.

 
Back
Top