Death Feigning Beetle Death - Black, opened rear end?

K

KasuKasu

Egg
I found one of my five adorable blue death feigning beetles dead the other day and wonder if anyone has had this happen with a beetle before. I found him on his back inside of a cholla piece with his legs spread wide apart, but the concerning thing was his (no idea what it's called) anus area looked like a piece of black clay had dried there, and it smelled bad when I removed and observed him.

I have watched my beetles poop before or be "amorous" with each other, and the two halves of their "shell" or exoskeleton of their back end come apart at the tip during each activity. With the one that died, his exoskeleton pieces were sitting opened at the tip and this gross black growth had dried there.

Things that crossed my mind were maybe it was some sort of digestive issue? I have worried about the fine sand substrate in there and that one of them may accidentally eat some sand particles that get mixed into moist food. Did not seem to be any kind of parasite. Perhaps it was parts of internal organs that had extended out the back?

Poor thing had been in there quite a while I think since I couldn't see in the dark cholla piece.
default_sad.png
I hope he had just reached old age but so suspect something went wrong...

 
The black growth you describe is probably the extruded internal organs. In my experience, blues are very hardy beetles and I doubt the sand substrate is an issue. Probably just old age, as almost all blues are wild caught and there's no way of knowing how old they are.

 
I agree with arizonablue. I keep many, many blue beetles and I keep them in fine sand from their natural habitat and they are just fine. It was probably just old age or some other natural cause and it just happens. It's especially difficult to tell from such a small number. If you had 30 of them and 5 died, then I worry that something in the environment was wrong. But just 1 is difficult to say. You could have had 100 and that was the only one that died. Since the others are doing fine and the one that died lived a year, I would conclude that your tank and feeding methods are good.

 
I had this happen with a different type of beetle, but as it aged some of an internal organ poked out of the end of it. It didn't seem to bother it.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top