Is my Lucanus elaphus in prepupation?

Ayudrs

Ayudrs

L3
This is my beetle baby, his name is Elmer and he is a L3 Lucanus elaphus purchased from USBeetles and received at the end of September. Since around the start of December I noticed he constructed what looked to be a pupa chamber to me. This was a surprise since I was assuming they go up for sale once they become L3, and I've heard L3 lasts at least 6 months. But now in December he's doing this. He's been here for over a week in what I can assume is emptying his gut for preparation. But if anyone is more familiar with Beetle prepupation please let me know! I hope he is okay 😥

I hope my photo upload, I can't tell if it has.

 
I think he means that the term "prepupation" is when they stop moving altogether to prepare for their final molt. Yours is still in the process of creating its pupal chamber and hasn't gone dormant yet, so it could still rebuild it if necessary. Prepupae won't be able to.

 
Ayudrs said:
Ah I see, thank you very much for the response. I guess I considered it prepupation because well... he's "preparing" to pupat.
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He's been preparing to pupate since the day he hatched, but prepupa is normally the immobile stage when they can't use their legs anymore.

 
Your elaphus is getting ready to pupate. I also got a few elaphus from USbeetles in September, now they all have a more yellowish color and looks like they will pupate soon

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ypli said:
Your elaphus is getting ready to pupate. I also got a few elaphus from USbeetles in September, now they all have a more yellowish color and looks like they will pupate soon

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Oh thank you, good to hear from someone that bought them around the same time. And did you buy all of them lol? I remember there being 8 in stock for a whole week when I was planning on buying one. I bought one male, and a few days later they were out of stock lol.

 
Ayudrs said:
Oh thank you, good to hear from someone that bought them around the same time. And did you buy all of them lol? I remember there being 8 in stock for a whole week when I was planning on buying one. I bought one male, and a few days later they were out of stock lol.
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When I checked they only had 4 left so I got all 4 of them. Have you ever weighed your grub? I heard they can usually reach 10g in late L3 but mine are not even near that weight lol

 
ypli said:
When I checked they only had 4 left so I got all 4 of them. Have you ever weighed your grub? I heard they can usually reach 10g in late L3 but mine are not even near that weight lol
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Well I'm just glad I was able to get one at L3. But no, I think I'm too early into Beetle raising to be to worried about weight and rearing the largest beetles I can. But I doubt my Elmer was close to 10g. I have high hopes for another Elaphus I got from David's Beetles. They were a teeny tiny L1 at the start of October, but now I think they are almost as big as Elmer was before he started his pupa chamber 0.0, maybe I can try weighing them if I ever buy a gram scale.

 
I guess I'll update the situation. He finally pupated like a whole year, and 3 pupa chambers later lol. He destroyed the pupa chamber I posted about above. I transfered him to a new contianer with clay I made by sifting excavator clay and mixing with water. He made a chamber, 6 months past, nothing. Broke out of that one too. So I kinda gave up a little and just put him in a 16oz cup of flake where he finally made a pupa chamber and pupated around June. He's only 45mm, so not very large, but I'm just happy to see him make it to adulthood. Now for the long dormancy...keeping him chilled like I heard you should do. I did have another LE male that emerged several months later and was 53mm. Pretty nice.
 

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Lucanus elaphus time periods can be pretty crazy. Sometimes they’ll complete their life cycle in under a year and others will wait an extra year in the infamous “prepupal” phase.
 
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