Creophilus maxillosus

[Hisserdude]

I thought I would make an official thread about these. I have been keeping my adults in a 24 oz tupperware, with 2 dozen holes drilled into the top. They eat live mealworms, moist dog food, and isopods. They love to burrow, so i give them 2 inches of coconut fiber. I keep the substrate really moist/wet, but they are not swimming in water or anything. The wet substrate seems to induce egg laying. The eggs hatch within 4 days of being laid. I put the eggs in this.

The eggs go in the cell in the top left corner. when they hatch, i separate the larva from the eggs and put them in different cells. I put 2 larva per cell, small larva in the small cells, big larva in the big cells. The larva will eat dead mealworms, which i change daily, but if there is only one larva per cell, you can feed them every other day. There are pieces of toilet paper roll for hides. In about 2 weeks, they are ready to pupate. The cell right under the egg cell has a pre-pupa in it. I Add more substrate, compact it, and put the larva in it. It has made a pupal cell, and should pupate in a few days. I have put other larva ready to pupate in other containers, as there is no more room in this one.

Here are some pics of the larva.

Large larva, with a reddish brown head.

Large larva with black head.

Medium sized larva with black head.

The pics are not the best, but the dang things won't stay still lol!

Hope you guys like this post!

 

[Ratmosphere]

So sick man!

 

[Hisserdude]

Thanks!

 

[Hisserdude]

Here are some pics of the pupa!

Front.

Back.

 

[AlexW]

Hope it soon ecloses!

 

[Hisserdude]

Me too! It has already been a week!

 

[Peter Clausen]

Really great life cycle photos! I look forward to egg and adult photos to complete the series.

 

[Hisserdude]

Thanks Peter, I will (hopefully) get pics of the adults and the eggs when I have the chance!

The pupa is about a day or two away from being an adult, you can tell by its color, the whole pupa is black now.

When i was breeding a different species of rove beetle, one of my pupa turned black, and i thought it had died. I threw it out, and a few days later another one of my pupa turned black. I left it alone, out of lazyness, and the next day there was an adult in the cage! Lesson learned lol!

 

[AlexW]

Hmm, maybe that's why the Harpalus pupa "died"?

 

[Shade of Eclipse]

I always apply the sniff test when I think something's died. Unfortunately for my nose, they almost always are dead.

 

[AlexW]

I usually prod it to see if it moves. Even pupae only hours before eclosing will wiggle.

 

[Hisserdude]

Actually, my rove beetle pupa are incapable of moving, at all. And my harpalus turned brown, and grew mold all over, so it was definitely dead lol!

 

[Hisserdude]

My first pupa enclosed!

Pupal skin in the background in these pics.

I have 6 more pupa, and one more larva. My founding adults died (forgot to feed them

). All I need is a pic of an egg, and I will have pics of the whole life cycle!