Bess Beetles

Trailblazr80 said:
Exciting! What kind of setup do you have?
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Well... I'm kind of embarrassed to say, exactly...

My Bessie Farm (think of a large ant farm, and you'll get the idea) is currently being reconfigured and modified to fix a few design flaws. So, I have my two Bessies hanging out in a 30 FL OZ mayonnaise jar (!!!) while I'm working on the Bessie Farm!

They've been in the mayonnaise jar for a few months, now. The jar is filled a little over 3/4 of the way up with Bess Beetle frass and, on top of that, they have about a one inch layer of mulched oak leaves and shredded rotting wood to munch on. The lid only has 4 small pin holes in it for a little air while keeping the moisture level up.

I think the keys as to why they mated and now have a family is: 1) There are only two of them. Hence, they are not disturbed by other Bessies constantly roaming around and invading their space; 2) The jar is in my bedroom sitting on a bookcase shelf, far away from heavy traffic (like our 6-year-old daughter and our family dog); 3) My bedroom is very dimly lit. It has no direct sunlight and I rarely turn on the overhead lights. Instead, I mostly use a small desk lamp to read by.

So, those three factors, along with LOTS of frass, seem to have set up the perfect conditions for mating, egg-laying, and larval development.

That's all I can figure out.

So, again, I would like to be able to say that I have this awesome, sweeeeet "honeymoon" suite setup for my two Bessies, but the truth is, it's just a mayonnaise jar...

I sure wish this would have happened when I had them housed in the Bessie Farm, but if the mayonnaise jar did the trick, I'm NOT going to be the one complaining! I'll take it any way it comes! LOL

Cheers

 
That's an exciting discovery that you made!

I'm going to set them now up now in pairs.

Do you think it's better to make the upgraded Bessie farm you created smaller? Like the jars size.

 
I think the jar is the way to go for breeding. It seems to give them a good, solid core of frass and wood. The Bessie Farm is great for communities and viewing the tunnels, however I never managed to get any larvae or eggs out of it because, I think, the Bessies need to feel like they are in a large tree stump. That's my best guess.

A couple of hours ago, I managed to get a snapshot of one of the larvae as it made its way up to the top to remind me to water and feed it (I purposely didn't water them lately so that I could get them to surface).

Here's the photo for anyone who's interested:

One of my Bessies babies.4-9-14.jpg

Cheers

P.S. - To separate out the pairs, use digital calipers to measure the width of the pronotum. The females almost always have a larger pronotal width than the males.

 
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That's so amazing ! Good luck. I highly doubt mine will breed. I'm always messing around, looking at mine from under the tank with a flashlight and I don't think they appreciate it that much. Ha.

 
Just wanted to add that I noticed my bess beetles have been eating the moistened sheet moss I put in their tank. So now I have wood and moss as an option! I will be adding sphagnum moss.

 
Amici Con Coleotteri said:
Wow that's incredible! I have a picture in my head of your bessie farm, but I'd like to see it if you have pictures? Sounds like a really neat idea.
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It's disassembled, right now. I've got some pictures somewhere on one of my SD cards. I'll look around when I've got some time and upload a pic when I find it.

Cheers

 
Spectacular photo!

Also thanks for letting me know how to distinguish the pairs.

I hope I don't pick a minor female with a major male.

I can't wait to see your improved Bessie farm that you invented.

 
I'd be interested to know how you distinguish Bessie frass. I have 5 tropical Bess Beetles from Trinidad. 3, which I presume are males are about 50mm long and 2 are smaller, 30mm, I assume these are females. At the moment they are excavating lots of galleries in a big lump of soft rot wood and chucking out piles of sawdust but I can see no more. If keeping them in pairs in smaller jarsis the way to go i may give it a try with one pair.

 
Matt said:
I'd be interested to know how you distinguish Bessie frass. I have 5 tropical Bess Beetles from Trinidad. 3, which I presume are males are about 50mm long and 2 are smaller, 30mm, I assume these are females. At the moment they are excavating lots of galleries in a big lump of soft rot wood and chucking out piles of sawdust but I can see no more. If keeping them in pairs in smaller jarsis the way to go i may give it a try with one pair.
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If you look at the photo I uploaded in comment #22, you'll notice frass on the piece of wood. The frass droppings are those little blackish-brown ovoid balls which you'll notice are mostly clumped together on the lower left side of the piece of wood the larva is sitting on. And, you'll also notice individual frass pieces deposited down along the center of the wood. That's adult Bessie frass. Also, if you look in the lower right of the photo, you'll see a blob of frass that the Bessie larva dropped onto my finger. It's wetter and larger than adult Bessie frass. So, encapsulated in that one photo, are all the types of Bessie frass that you'll come across with Odontotaenius disjunctus.

You don't say exactly which species of Bessie you have, but, since you say they are from Trinidad, I'm assuming they are Passalus interruptus. I don't have any experience with that particular species, however I'm figuring your Trinidad species' frass should have the same look and feel as that from Odontotaenius disjunctus.

As for determining sex... My experience is that you can't always rely on sizing beetle lengths to separate out males from females. With Bessies, short of dissection, the closest way to separate out males from females is to measure the width of the pronotum. However, it's not 100 percent accurate. That being said, it's better than nothing. By the way, I ran across this method while reading The Journal of Insect Science, Vol 13. --> CLICK HERE.

Also, you say you may try the jar method with one pair. If you can get more, I would recommend you try at least three pairs in separate jars because you never really know if you have sexed out a true pair or not until they die and are dissected. Make sure to keep them undisturbed and in low lighting conditions. Maybe some mood music, candles, wine... Oh, wait, what was I thinking? Err... Sorry. I got distracted. lulz

Good luck and keep us posted!

Cheers

 
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Bill

Thanks for the suggestion for the name of the species. I'd say it looks pretty much like photos on the net, but then again it's a Passalid beetle, so it's pretty similar to everey other type of bess beetle. A German Wiki page I found suggests that the smaller beetles will be the females. When they expire I will take them along to the Natural History Museum in London and see if the guys there can suggest a name. With your rearing, are you using white rot or brown rot wood, I was wondering if they had a preference?

I have not noticed any frass yet in my tank, but most of the action is taking place inside a large lump of wood so I am tempted just to let them get on with things for a while before opening up the log a bit and seeing whats goin on. Looking at the paper you referenced making cage and wood a little more humid my be beneficial.

Matt

 
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