Cotinis nitida has been l2/l3 for 8 months!

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Dubia4life

L2
So, I collected ten cotinis nitida larvae that I believe were l2/l3 when I found them. I had one die within about a week of collecting them then another died about 2 months ago... the thing is NONE of them have pupated. It's been about 8 months since I found them and I am getting really frustrated and worried. In Orin's book it says rearing the grubs is simple and rapid and take three freaking months from egg to pupal cell! It has to be something wrong with what I'm doing.

I've been keeping them in rotted oak with rotted leaves that were sterilized and ground/crushed until fine. Since they were what I assumed to be l3 I added some fine sand and added almost no water, I've changed about half the subtrate multiple times making sure to leave some old substrate. They are kept at room temp. (68f - 70f) Also I added some larger but not huge pieces of wood and bird seed periodically. They are kept in a five gallon plastic container. I'm at a loss as to what I should do. Please help.

 
They don’t actually need rotten wood, rearing cotinis is like rearing goliathus, use a simple crushed rotten leaf substrate and supplement feed them with protein foods. They do need some moisture and will shrink up without it, and they can get up to like 1.5 inches long. Also, when it is time for them to pupate (evidenced by them not eating) do NOT disturb them, if they even feel the cage being lifted they will flee the pupal cell and die.

 
Bugboy3092 said:
They don’t actually need rotten wood, rearing cotinis is like rearing goliathus, use a simple crushed rotten leaf substrate and supplement feed them with protein foods. They do need some moisture and will shrink up without it, and they can get up to like 1.5 inches long. Also, when it is time for them to pupate (evidenced by them not eating) do NOT disturb them, if they even feel the cage being lifted they will flee the pupal cell and die.
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Yes, but since he is giving birdseed (advice from Orin) it should be enough. Cotinis grubs, unlike Goliathus, are not predacious under normal circumstances

 
Alright, do you suggest I make a 100% crushed leaf substrate? Maybe half sand half crushed leaf? Any other supplements other than bird seed? I'm guessing even if they attempt to pupate they'll come out severely deformed or dead, just a guess though.

 
Yes, make probably 3/4 leaf, 1/4 sand substrate, they won’t nessecarily come out deformed, though they may be smaller if they aren’t getting the right nutrition.maybe try giving them some protein based food (like turtle food, that’s what I use) in addition to the birdseed. Also, I’ve had this happen too, sometimes if you collect wild grubs, instead of maturing rapidly, they’ll just take the “natural” amount of time to mature, meaning that they’ll make a pupal cell around late may or early June.

 
Well, I was setting up a new container with some leaves I collected a few years ago for this exact purpose. As I was pulling grubs out for them to be weighed and transferred to their new container... I broke a pupal cell in the bottom of the container... Grrr!!! I checked the rest of the substrate and lucky for me none of the other grubs started to make their pupal cell as far as I could tell, but I'm guessing the larva in the cell I broke is as good as dead now. He didn't seem much different from the other larvae except his abdomin was smaller than the others. Instead of moving the grubs over I kept them in their old container with their old substrate. How long should it take for all of them to pupate? Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best!

 
Uh oh, hopefully you didn’t shake them too much, as even small disturbances can cause cotinis nitida o flee their pupal cells and not make a new one. I think they take a month or two.

 
If they do flee the cells, try putting them in little deli cups with a moist, rounded paper towel, I think it can sometimes substitute a pupal chamber

 
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