Blue Death Feigning Beetle Larva

MrCrackerpants said:
Peter at Bugsincyberspace asked me to post a current picture of one of my Blue Death Feigning Beetle Larva

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.204512272946550.51970.100001633364339&l=6c19b3f316&type=1

This one is currently 1.75 inches. Sorry for the horrible quality of the photo. I did not want to dig them up so I waited until I saw one pop up to the surface. All I had at the time was my phone.

Thanks for looking.
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So they have all died but one larva.

 
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MrCrackerpants said:
So they have all died but one larva.
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The one surviving 1.5 inch larva is doing laps on the outer edge of the container on the top of the substrate. It has went around the clear round container so many time it has made a slight impression in the substrate.

Has anyone seen this behavior with other beetle species?

Do you know why it is doing this?

 
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MrCrackerpants said:
The one surviving 1.5 inch larva is doing laps on the outer edge of the container on the top of the substrate. It has went around the clear round container so many time it has made a slight impression in the substrate.

Has anyone seen this behavior with other beetle species?

Do you know why it is doing this?
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UPDATE: The last one died. At a certain point it stopped eating the bran. It then went around the clear round container so many time it has made a slight impression in the substrate. It did this for 3 days. It then stopped and died. I think it was looking for a different environment to pupate. I am giving up for now. If you figure out the correct environmental factors to get this species to pupate, please post it. I am trying to set up a breeding program with school children. This would be a fun beetle to get to reproduce in the classroom.

 
Well, that is a bummer. I was hoping you were going to be the first.

However, the good news is that you are the first to successfully document the progress up to a point. I really view your experience as a success because this is as far as I've seen anybody take this species in terms of observing nearly all of its life cycle.

 
Sorry for this newbie question, but does that mean that only wild caught blue feigning death beetles are available? Where do people find them? The only source I see online is kenthebugguy...

 
nanchantress said:
Sorry for this newbie question, but does that mean that only wild caught blue feigning death beetles are available? Where do people find them? The only source I see online is kenthebugguy...
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Yes, that species is only wild caught so far. It can take a few generations to get darklings to fare well in captivity and of course in such cases the die off in the first few generations is very high making it rather difficult. They are found in parts of AZ and CA. BIC and a few other sites have them as well.

 
Thanks, Orin. I have been in touch with BIC and I'm looking forward to this year's stock when it becomes available
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Also ordered 3 of your books from him so I'll be ready!

 
I have a group of 8 adults that I received from Peter in May of 2011. yesterday my girlfriend noticed a mealworm cruising around the surface and wondered what it was and how it got there. I was amazed that I had a larva of a beetle! I hope I can keep it alive until it pupates but I'm not holding my breath. On another note, I sifted tru the sub to find it after she told me about it and I thought I had found a dead one, but after putting it back in the enclosure it started to burrow after a few minutes. Seems the babies play dead like the adults. Also it is the only one I found.

 
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