Exotic wood for substrate

Hello Everyone,

I always read about making substrate with oak or beech, and I would if I could, but I live in Brazil, and none of these trees grow here. Usually I can buy purplehearth, ipê, jatobá and other very hard woods for next to nothing (i.e. two dollar for a 3 meter slab), but I have never heard of anyone using them, or any other wood besides european or north american species.

Does anyone have any kind of information if they would work or not? Or what woods tropical beetles naturally use as their substrate? I can't find this information anywhere, but I am pretty sure that Brazilian lucanids and rhinos live off something that grows here (obviously).

Thanks for the help and sorry if it got too confusing.

 
@Gus777 Many people thinks oak is the only thing they can use for rearing scarabs just because Japanese people are using them, but that's not true... Oaks are just common there in Asian countries. Scarabs can be reared with many different hardwood species. I tried oak, pecan, hickory, maple, etc. Some wood species may not be fed naturally (in forest) but can be fed when "reared."

I highly doubt that oak is not available in Brazil, but if that REALLY is the case, then all those scarabs occurring in Brazil MAY NOT need to be fed with oaks at all. (which means there is definitely another major wood species as a food source).

FYI, there is oak species referred as "Brazilian Oak," so I'm guessing that species occurs in Brazil, otherwise, why would it be named as "Brazilian?"  :lol:

Try look for "something" that is similar to oak. What is it you are trying to rear by the way? Try search for scientific research papers discussing that species, and figure out where they naturally occur and what tree species are they found from.

 
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Oak is available only as wood for barrel making, and is ridiculously expensive, and the climate is not suitable for oak plantations or anything like that. There is no Quercus of Fagus species endemic to my country. The "Brazilian oak" you are talking about is a wood named tauari, and it has nothing to do with oak, except maybe for the color, but has a horrible sulfur like smell that I wouldn't believe any beetle would be very found. 

I am trying to breed Leptinopterus, mainly, and haven't found a single paper with any mention to what wood it thrives. The knly reference I found was a paper talking about some of them being found on a small private area with some japanese oak trees.

 
@Gus777 My apology on that! I didn't research thoroughly, simply because the name was sounded so obvious!

What papers did you read? Many taxonomic researches these days usually do include biology of species and genus. I know Leptinopterus is being researched by Dr. Paschoal C. Grossi. I remember reading his research the other day. Have you read his work as well? He studies the scarabs occurring in Brazil. I don't know if you have an access to read ResearchGate materials, but, have you checked following research? Link

According to that reference, Dr. Grossi has observed adults of multiple species feeding on sap of trees in Asteraceae, Lauraceae (avocado, Persaea americana Linnaeus, is introduced tree species), Melastomataceae (Tibouchinia), and larvae were found in dead, non-decayed trunks or very recently decayed trunks.

When adults feed on particular tree species, that is one hella good wood species for larvae as well. How would larvae be found in wood? where adult pairs meet and mates, then go oviposit eggs!

 
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