Hisserdude

Yeah, bit longer on the males, males are lankier overall, the females are much more chonky and compact.

OK, and no supplemental foods?

Thanks, I think so too! Seems the females have been digging around, so hopefully that means oviposition!

I too would like to know, are they feeding on the compost/leave litter exclusively, or are you offering protein supplements as well? Any issues with cannibalism yet?

Eleodes debilis, another species from Fort Stockton TX. This species belongs to the monotypic subgenus Omegeleodes, that's right, this little species has a whole subgenus all to itself! 🙂 I was having difficulty identifying this one, at first I thought they were E.carbonaria, but just in case I decided to send pictures to avid Tenebrionid enthusiast Isaac Fox, who after asking a couple questions about morphology was able to confirm that these were E.debilis, based on the outer tibial spurs on their front legs being longer than the inner ones, which evidently makes them debilis rather than carbonaria. Funny the tiny differences that can be used to differentiate species, big thanks to Isaac for helping me identify these cuties! This species has never entered culture before as far as I know, so I don't know what to expect in terms of difficulty, fingers crossed I can breed them with relative ease, and document my progress along the way! 🙂 I have them set up on a sand/coco fiber mix, and will keep a third of their setup humid, the rest dry. Their enclosure is very well ventilated, and I'll dog food for their staple diet. Pretty basic Eleodes setup, which I'll make adjustments to if needed. Female: Male:

Eleodes obscura glabriuscula from Fort Stockton, TX, this is the dominant subspecies of E.obscura in that area. I've worked with (but failed to breed) the subspecies present here in ID, E.o.sulcipennis, however as I learned early this year, the large larvae need a winter diapause to continue development properly... I found that out too late though, and was unable to rear any to maturity as a result. Hopefully this southern subspecies will be much easier though, since no diapause should be needed for them at all. I'll do my best to breed these and get them established in culture! These darklings are huge, one of the largest in the genus Eleodes. Females especially are quite bulky! The difference between this subspecies and the more widespread E.o.sulcipennis is that sulcipennis have fairly deep grooves in their elytra, whereas these glabriuscula merely have irregular lines of fine, shallow pits on their elytra. E.o.glabriuscula are also much more glossy in appearance than sulcipennis are. E.o.glabriuscula is pretty much exclusively found in west Texas, though they have been collected in far southern NM, AZ, and northern Mexico too. Adult female: Male:

A week or two if kept warm. Larvae are quite cannibalistic so honestly if you can find eggs as they are being laid, I'd just move them to their own deli cups.

Yeah, just a locality based color variation. BTW, it's Phloeodes, not Nosoderma, they were moved back to Phloeodes but I still see people labeling them as Nosoderma for some reason.

Yeah, that's more than likely the reason it keeps getting bigger then shrinking.

Could also be that the abdomen is extending and shrinking back up after particularly large meals, sometimes very well fed or very gravid Carabids get distended abdomens that go past their elytra.

Any pics of them in their current growth phase?

Any updates?

Yet another US native Pyrophorini species in my collection, and just like all the other US species in culture, @Lucanus is the proud collector, this stock comes from George West, TX. I only have CB larvae ATM, will be several months until I start getting adults, but I figured I'd share pics of them anyways, not a lot of people working with click beetles, let alone bioluminescent ones. Here's a small larva: And here are some really grainy pics of one larva glowing defensively, they only do so when pretty spooked, and only glow just being their head capsules:

One of our smallest US native Pyrophorini, but they still glow brightly nonetheless! @Lucanus collected these from Ocala FL last year, and sent me 9 CB larvae, which I've been rearing up for months now. One of them just pupated, so I should be seeing an adult in person soon, hopefully I'll be able to breed these easily! Some pictures of a small larva: And now here is a pupa, under normal lighting and then in the dark, so you can see it glowing.

The last two larvae from the group of seven I received last year finally matured a month or so ago, and they are massive compared to the other five that pupated prematurely due to heat stress. Sadly I'm pretty sure it's a unisex pair, so no offspring from these two, but their five siblings produced a ton of larvae last year, so I'm not complaining. Here are some pics of one of the two: