Recent content by Bugboy3092

I think it kind of depends, although I found some Strategus Aloeus larvae (L2) earlier in July that are all molting to L3. It seems that the most likely case here is that the beetles emerged later in the previous year and overwintered as adults, then emerged earlier than other adults this year...

It could be a female, do you want it to lay eggs?

Unfortunately it likely won't live much longer, if you are just trying to keep it alive you can keep it on a couple of inches of coco fiber and feed it beetle jellies or fruits (not citrus)

Is this one of the brown june beetles or a greet june beetle?

Hey guys, I'll be heading back to school in SD in a few weeks here and was interested in collecting O. Subplanata while there. Apparently they live in my area, but a lot of it is Ponderosa Pine. Does anyone have advice on collecting these beetles? I'll also be there in late August, so trying not...

If you just plan to have an adult on display then you you absolutely don't need flake. Coco fiber will work just fine

Small update, it's been about a week now since the larvae hatched, and so far so good! I'm not sure if they have grown at all, it looks like they might have. The more important parts are that they are still alive, and it does appear that they have an intestinal tract, so they must be eating...

I can't believe I'm writing this right now, guys we have larvae! I'll be trying a couple of different foods for these, but it is highly suspected they eat rotten wood, and potentially decaying leaves as a supplement. Eggs took approximately one week to hatch.

As in you found one of these ironclad beetles?

I think you might be right. It does seem like the depth of cracks might be the most important factor in egg laying. I haven’t actually seen any of the eggs they’re allegedly laying on their bark, but there was a clutch of a couple dozen eggs within a crevice on a completely solid piece of wood...

They've now laid eggs both in the oak bark and in the crevices of this piece of hardwood, which I suspect is an oak of some sort. However, all of the adults were collected from live honey locust trees with significant lichen growth and dead parts (mostly in the form of large dead branches).

Managed to get photos uploaded of the beetles ovipositing, and of course the eggs themselves! I ended up separating the eggs from the adults, and have quite a lot of them! Also shown is an image of the enclosure, that piece of bark has white fungus growing on the underside. One of the beetles is...

I haven't kept this species but I would say you should be fine to stretch it out with white-rot flakes. You should definitely order more though, you'll need it!

Major update: they are in fact laying eggs. Unfortunately I don’t seem to be able to attach the photos here since it’s too large but if anyone would like to have it confirmed please feel free to reach out. I have photos of the female oviposition as well as a photo of the eggs themselves, it...

Possibly major update here; I still haven't observed the beetles eat yet, which is mildly concerning. However, I did walk in on what appeared to be one of the females ovipositing on a piece of bark! I put a large piece of bark with what I believe is white rot growing on the underside in their...