AlexW

Yes, fruits/vegs/vertebratefood. Petals of non-poisonous plants are highly attractive for tenebs, isopods, and other omnivorous grazers; for drought-tolerant spp. they can be dried and left in the cage for long periods (unsweetened cereals and sometimes lettuce can also be used this way). Do note that grain moths/beetles like Plodia will breed in dried petal piles of sufficiently large size.

They will likely eat at least some normal darkling foods

When suitable food is available 24/7, it is often very difficult to see healthy tenebs feeding on it

odd, it seems to work for me

https://bugguide.net/node/view/25394

I suspect your “L3” that pupated may have molted far more times than you think

Orin’s ult beetle guide notes that clicks and darklings molt many times before maturity, often w no apparent size increases

Welcome! Feigner darklings should be a good starter insect, they’re much less troublesome than many scarabs.

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Even pentatomids and caterpillars will cannibalize when starving or crowded, and almost all generalist herbivores will eat corpses even if healthy.

Agreed with Bugboy (yes, it's spelled correctly). Penthe is so poorly studied that no online research exists on their biology; however, putting them in a box with fungi and moisture levels similar to those in their habitat is probably enough. Keep in mind that many large fungus beetles are specialist feeders and may possibly become unhealthy or experience larval deaths if forced to feed on non-preferred species for long periods. You may wish to occasionally offer beetle jellies or fruits as supplemental foods though; Penthe have been known to eat it in captivity

One of my friends fed an Alobates adult a scarab grub. Despite being a slow, vulnerable animal, the grub was unharmed; one would expect grubs to be a favorite of predatory slow-moving forest beetles (after all, lucanids enjoy chewing them up)

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