Cactus Long Horn Beetle emerged

[Garin]

This is my first time raising Cactus Long Horns (M gigas). I caught the adult beetls in Arizona last summer and the first new adult emerged today. On the left is a pupa that has not emerged yet. Some of the adults from last summer are still alive, so they appear to pretty long lived.

 

[PowerHobo]

Nice, congrats!

I have no luck with this species when I received some adults, but I'm thinking my invert room may simply be too cold for these guys since it stays at the temps better for my scarab larvae.

 

[Goliathus]

I've never reared any kind of cerambycid at all, but Moneilema is definitely a great one to work with because of the large size, short development period, availability of their host plant, and the longevity of the adults!  Maybe I'll try rearing some myself eventually, esp. since I have year-round access to wild, prickly pear cactus.  At the moment though, I kind of have my hands full with Chrysina spp., which I'm now having great success with due to recent improvements in the rearing process.  I'm continuing to have C. woodi adults emerge, have now set up a breeding tank for them, and am already seeing mating activity.  So, I expect that eggs will be laid quite soon, if they haven't started doing so already!

 

[Ratmosphere]

Looks great!

 

[Garin]

Nice, congrats!

I have no luck with this species when I received some adults, but I'm thinking my invert room may simply be too cold for these guys since it stays at the temps better for my scarab larvae.

Thanks! Make sure to keep some of the substrate very moist. I found they won't lay eggs if the sand is not moist. The sand that was dry had no eggs. I kept them at room temp and did not add heat but my house stays around 70 the whole year due to someone always being home.

I've never reared any kind of cerambycid at all, but Moneilema is definitely a great one to work with because of the large size, short development period, availability of their host plant, and the longevity of the adults!  Maybe I'll try rearing some myself eventually, esp. since I have year-round access to wild, prickly pear cactus.  At the moment though, I kind of have my hands full with Chrysina spp., which I'm now having great success with due to recent improvements in the rearing process.  I'm continuing to have C. woodi adults emerge, have now set up a breeding tank for them, and am already seeing mating activity.  So, I expect that eggs will be laid quite soon, if they haven't started doing so already!

If you ever want to try, let me know. I generally see them each year in AZ. Sounds great with regards to the C woodi! Awesome species.

Looks great!

Thanks!

 

[MasterOogway]

Very cool!  I consistently get larvae from my adults, but haven't had any pupate yet.  I can really only feed cut prickly pear cactus here instead of the whole plant unfortunately, which I think hobbles my efforts.   And yeah, they seem to be pretty long lived, I'd definitely agree on that aspect.  Definitely some fun little beetles though.  

Edit: On a whim, I just decided to dig through their bin and found 2 pupal cells, so turns out I've got at least 2 that are trying. Did yours build cells?  How long was the pupation?  

 

[Garin]

I had some build pupal cells and others that just pupated on top. I wasn't very good at keeping track of how long things took with these guys. However, I got the adults in July 2018 and they laid eggs right away. So it did take awhile to get the adults. I thought it would have been much faster and sort of gave up. I "think" you will have adult beetles in a month or so.