JKim

If the insects being pinned are not dried, but only been killed in freezer, that can happen especially with large bodied species. But when I pin beetles out of freezer, I usually let them sat for 30-60 minutes to melt it down completely and then wipe any excess water (or body fluid) off before I start pinning them. Anything small, I don't. Another method to kill insects is using alcohol. Things will be so much easier if the specimens are clean with no debris upon photography, but dust and debris, or such stains can easily be removed while processing images. Below is an original image of a sole specimen of male Strategus splendens collected from state Louisiana, deposited in Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (Baton Rouge, LA). Because this specimen did not belong to me, I had no choice but to just photograph it and remove everything later. I didn't want to risk it and damage the specimen. The final image with all those dust and debris removed can be found in: https://junsukkim.wordpress.com/2018/06/03/strategus-splendens-palisot-de-beauvois-1809-coleoptera-scarabaeidae-dynastinae/ You just have to be very careful not to alter any morphological characters while doing it.

Hi! If the wood is already rotten, as Dynastes has mentioned, it is not necessary to ferment it again. I would suggest as exactly as the way Dynastes has provided.

Loam, is mostly composed of sand and silt, then very small portion of clay, so it is basically similar to what you already know. Red dirt, or clay should work fine. I use clay to aid stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles to make their pupal cells. Most of rhinoceros and stag beetles are known to not needing that, but it still is very helpful for them.

If grasshopper and walking sticks took a while to dry out completely, it's going to be even harder for scarabs with its body mass and their characteristics. (Insects like stick insects or grasshoppers doesn't need that much of time or effort to dry it out). One of quite an affordable method would be using a large amount of reusable silica gel. Pour in silica gel into a plastic container that is not too large, and then place (either pinned or unpinned) specimens on there, and close the lid. The plastic container should be air-tight one, without any holes. The key is to use a lot of silica gel with a container that is not too large to have too much empty spaces. If you are serious about pinning and preserving insects, having large amount of collections, you might want to consider purchasing food dryer with large spaces in between trays or a unit without stacking trays. This is probably cheapest option with a help of electronics. There are other methods like a specially made low-temperature oven, dry-freezer, bottle sterilizer (dryer), etc. In similar method, if you can build one that may be even better to serve your purpose. Use filament bulb that produces heat with fan inside a cabinet can imitate oven-like dryer. The specimens just has to be away from light to avoid any potential discoloration.

I don't think that was a defense mechanism, but just "had to go" on you...😅 I just wash my beetles off on running water that's not too cold or warm with old tooth brush, or soft ones. I use my own fingers sometimes when it's not too bad.

A picture of Dyscinetus morator pupa. Before I knew... it is already ready to emerge... I collected multiple adults back in May-June, and it has only been about three months since I spotted few larvae crawling in containers. A sole survivor decided to emerge already...lol. This is second year in a row that I haven't separated any eggs or larvae from each other. Maybe they are cannibalistic? Also, another surprising factor is that their exuvia is being left out like how it is done by many Rutelines.

"Dedicated" YES, you need some dedication for this type of keeping.. It's been forever since I've done this...lol Thanks! I've been too lazy for the past decade, and trying to get back to good looking shelves again.. Thanks. To combat the cannibalism, you just have to set eggs and larvae individually in a container. Single egg in a single container! Pretty obvious, right? I bought the labels from Amazon (or you can get it from Office Depot, Staples, etc.). Try search for label papers. The product I purchased is from below: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XW7W7FG/ HOWEVER, my product quality kinda sucks.. The width of all papers are less than 8.5 inches, so I have to do a very good job aligning each page into printer feeder tray. There is an option where you can mass print labels on MS word. Go to Mailing tab on top, and then click for Labels, select and set options (30 labels per page in my case), and there you go! OR you can just go ahead make your own layout with tables. Since the measurements are usually provided on the package or in item description, you just have to draw a table and adjust margins, spaces, etc. The information I wrote on the labels are pretty simple. I know I'm not going to have enough time to check when each individual larvae becomes L2 or L3 stages, so I only wrote the species name, date and location of collection for its parents, and when each eggs are gathered/collected from breeding setups (with one extra line just in case).

Its occurrence range is pretty broad, and is similar to L. capreolus and more than L. elaphus. However, it looks like they are observed in small numbers only. I collected 1-2 specimens in each year in past couple years, but then I collected about 30? 40? specimens this year. Maybe they have a peak brood period.

I've been checking up with Strategus antaeus weekly to collect eggs and larvae. Eggs in 2oz container to incubate, larvae in 16oz to feed them. Every eggs I collected are first stored in 2oz container then about two-three weeks later I transfer them into 16oz (when larva is observed). So far, I got 98 confirmed counts for larvae, and about 110 eggs. I already lost about 100-200 eggs and larvae from cannibalism (that I didn't aware of it), but females are still alive and somewhat active. I'm expecting about 100-150 additional eggs from now, totaling around 300+ at the end. I have two very large shelves, and mostly filled up. It's been forever since I reared (or attempting to do) this many...

Welcome, Kati, Great to know more and more people are joining this forum as a starter.

I have some larvae this year from wild collected pairs. (although, don't have a lot).. Also, I reared these from another wild females in past years too, and larvae were pretty easy to rear and easy enough to reach emergence. Couple problems I encountered were: (1) all major males and females emerged with defect on elytra and abdomen -medium sized or minor sized came out perfect (2) adults barely fed on fruits -either they feed on fruit or not, they all showed some responses to jellies, but still barely did. (3) adult life span seems quite short whether WC or CB. It could all be just some combinations of coincidences (as I had power outage and AC down time to time throughout for past couple years, but still seemed quite strange to me. For the next year season, I'm hoping to get some more eggs and larvae to try things out. I also got a great advice from a friend who kept hundreds of larvae of this species...

Good luck!

I didn't know the Scarabs server is back online!!

Welcome! You got quite a different species!

In my case, yes, never really had any noticeable issues.