Blue Feigning Death Beetle Eggs

Speed Gimp

Speed Gimp

L1
The beetle tank is in my son's room and every night when I go in to check on my son while he's sleeping, I shine a flashlight into the tank to see if the beetles are active. Last night, I shined the light into the tank and saw three glistening white object partially exposed in the substrate. I immediately went to email Peter Clausen. When I returned two of the eggs had disappeared, but I found two more. I've removed all three eggs and put them in a in cup with a thin layer of damp coconut fiber. I plan on moving them to a container with a mixed substrate of coconut fiber and a compost that I've made (over the course of a year) from dead leaves. Tonight I saw another egg, but when I returned from getting the cup to transfer the egg to, it was being eaten by one of the beetles.
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Any advice on improving the odds of a successful hatching/rearing would be much appreciated.
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I've attached pictures of the eggs.

-Gimpy

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Great job! Rearing the larvae of this species doesn't seem too difficult but getting them to pupate is another story so far (which may have more to do with rearing the larvae than the pupation). Make sure the larvae have a dry area of the substrate as constant dampness will probably kill them early on.

 
I managed to recover two more eggs, so I'm now at a total of 5 eggs. Is dessication a concern with the eggs or is it a non-issue with these beetles?

-Gimpy

 
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One of the eggs turned black (I'm guessing that's not good) and another got fuzzy and was quickly removed.
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-Gimpy

 
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I hope the other ones fair better for you. I can't wait to see eggs or larva in my tank. Though I have a sneaking supision that the beetles are eating the eggs in my tank because I know I have seen a few of the females laying but no eggs or larva.

 
Since the eggs haven't yet hatched (let alone yielded offspring grown to adults), I wouldn't say that my setup is the one to copy, but here it is...

It's a 2.5 gallon tank with a mixed substrate. The mix is made of Zoo Med coconut fiber, Exo Terra riverbed sand, and some compost that I made myself. The compost is made from mostly brown leaves, as well as some lawn clippings, and woodchipped wood, that all sat for almost a year before breaking down to something that resembles brownish topsoil. It was baked in an oven for many hours (to kill any possible nasties) before being mixed in with the coco fiber and sand.

There are some succulent plants in the tank, and there is a light over it. The current bulb that I'm using doesn't really add any heat, but the room is at a constant 76-77 degrees. When it gets cooler, I'll use a hotter bulb.

The food that the beetles seem to like most is dog food (usually 4-6 pieces at a time). I soak it in water (filtered for whatever it;s worth) for about half an hour. By then it's swollen and very soft. I then remove the dog food from the small dish/tray I soak it in and move it into 1 gallon water gallon cap that I used as a feeder dish.
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If you haven't seen it already, my tank setup can be seen here in this thread: My Blue Death Feigning Beetle Tank.

The beetles seem very happy, but as mentioned earlier, it remains to be seen as to whether this will provide the conditions for successfully breeding them and rearing them offspring to adulthood.

It's not looking good for the eggs that I removed.
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-Gimpy

 
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This is the first photo I've seen on the internet of BDFB eggs. Very neat! We'll all be watching for updates in this thread. I saw two eggs stuck to the leg of a male once, a few years back. Larvae are not uncommon in tanks, but nobody ever seems to see lots of them. Maybe the adults have an ingrained tendency to take advantage of any meal they encounter in the arid, desolate places these beetles live. Never know when the current opportunity is going to be the last meal for months!??

 
Any updates? There are 15 blue death feigners in my university insectary that I want to take a shot at breeding and maybe even getting a colony going if possible. Any info would be much appreciated!

 
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