Eleodes pupation

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Bugboy3092

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Alrighty, since I’ve just gotten back from New Mexico, where I collected quite a few eleodes, I decided to put this post up. I know how to, and have experience, getting them to breed, lay eggs, and getting larvae to grow. However, all of my previous rearing attempts have come to a halt seemingly right before pupation. I’ve tried a couple of pupation methods, but they didn’t work for me (I probably did something wrong lol) but this time, my favorite eleodes species (E. Obscurus) is on the line! Yesterday I bought and set up a nice big ten gallon tank for them and the larvae, the substrate is coco fiber in the bottom six inches depth, and sand in a two inch top layer. The coco fiber is increasingly moist as it gets deeper, though it’s never sopping wet, or close to it. Would this be ok for pupating the larvae? I read in Orin’s guide that one good method for pupation is giving them a large tank with deep, damp, compactable substrate (for me that seems to be coconut fiber)  and the sustrate in the tank is a little over 8” deep. Maybe I’m over complicating this? I’m not sure, but I’m hoping it works. In the meantime, since I won’t actually need the information that hopefully ensues for a while (lol) can anyone who has experience getting them to pupate give me any suggestions/feedback/advice on pupating them? I’ve been considering burying a log in the cage for the larvae to burrow into to pupate, but would that really help? Thanks in advance!

 
I started breeding a bunch of darkling species a couple months ago and besides the ones that have contracted a Trichoderma fungi (which I've been successful in curing so far), pretty much everyone is doing superb! :D The setup I have for pretty much all of mine is a 27 qt. lidless container with 7-8 inches of a coconut fiber & sand mix; the top 1/5 or so I keep dry, while the rest is moist. Some larvae will appreciate a larger portion of dry substrate than others, so you can see how much time they spend in the drier area and gauge it from that. For hides I usually throw in halfed paper towel rolls, but with larger species I just use a McDonalds cupholder. In my best colony, I've already produced 60 or so adults of my own. :) Overall, the most important thing you should pay attention to when pupating them together is the population density of the larvae; if the population is too large, they can collapse the pupal chambers of pupating larvae/eclosing pupae.

Your setup sounds good although I would suggest mixing the coconut fiber with the sand in about a 50/50 ratio as I've found that a mix of the two is much sturdier than just coconut fiber alone.

 
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Wow, that’s awesome! How long would you say it takes a larva to mature? I know Orin’s guide states around ten months, but in previous rearing attempts I had larvae seemingly near pupating size within a few months, although I suppose this method is almost maintenance free so it wouldn’t matter too much. Is it necessary to dig up freshly emerged adults/pupae from the substrate? I know they can dig, but buried under six inches of sub, that would seem like a challenge to me. I’ll probably sift out some of the larvae and them in a smaller cage, with the same depth of substrate, to relieve the population in the main cage.

 
Bugboy3092 said:
Wow, that’s awesome! How long would you say it takes a larva to mature? I know Orin’s guide states around ten months, but in previous rearing attempts I had larvae seemingly near pupating size within a few months, although I suppose this method is almost maintenance free so it wouldn’t matter too much. Is it necessary to dig up freshly emerged adults/pupae from the substrate? I know they can dig, but buried under six inches of sub, that would seem like a challenge to me. I’ll probably sift out some of the larvae and them in a smaller cage, with the same depth of substrate, to relieve the population in the main cage.
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It usually takes about 4 months in my experience. 

It is not necessary to dig them up; they can more than bring themselves to the surface. :)  

That sounds like a good plan. :) They would of course be great feeders too if you have anything predatory.

 
oh Wow, so pretty short then.

thats good, I wasn’t looking forward to digging to the bottom of this monstrosity lol

thanks! I probably won’t use them as feeders, I just couldn’t bring myself to haha. If anything, if I got too many, I’d probably just sell them, I don’t think I know of anyone who sells eleodes obscurus, but it’s a beautiful species.

 
Bugboy3092 said:
oh Wow, so pretty short then.

thats good, I wasn’t looking forward to digging to the bottom of this monstrosity lol

thanks! I probably won’t use them as feeders, I just couldn’t bring myself to haha. If anything, if I got too many, I’d probably just sell them, I don’t think I know of anyone who sells eleodes obscurus, but it’s a beautiful species.
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Yep, they grow way quicker than I expected! Of course it will vary a bit by species, but it's generally around there.

I feel ya, it is a full on workout doing anything with that much substrate. LOL 

No problem. :) If they're anything like other Eleodes species, you may change your mind as they'll be very copious. ? They are indeed; your locality also seems to lack the usual deep ridges on the elytra which is pretty interesting.

 
Yeah I’ve noticed that, I did capture individuals with the deeper ridges, I’m pretty sure they’re different species

 
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