For Sale or Trade: Predacious Diving Beetle (Acilius)

[davehuth]

I Hello - I'm wondering about interest people might have in aquatic beetles? We're having one of western NY state's wettest summers in a decade, and the diving beetles with pretty yellow markings are exploding everywhere. Fairly sure they're Acilius mediatus. The Internet says these are reasonably easy to keep, so feel free to message me if you'd like me to collect some adults for you to buy or trade. ($3 each, many available for the next week or so)

If trading, I'm mostly into Tenebrionids (Darkling Beetles) and Ironclad Beetles, but also interested in easy to breed Scarabs, Polydesmid millipedes, and I also need fermented wood beetle substrate. Let me know.

(I've never shipped anything in water before, so I could use advice on that, or if someone more knowledgeable knows if the beetles will ship ok in wet sphagnum? Continental USA only.)

 

[Hydrophilus]

For shipping adult aquatic insects, it's usually best to ship in damp Sphagnum moss or damp paper towels. I've done this with Abedus, Lethocerus, Ranatra, and Cybister with good success. I once tried transporting Thermonectus marmoratus in a deli cup half full of water and it was an unmitigated disaster, despite a travel time of only nine hours. I'm still kicking myself over that, I've been trying ever since then to get my hands on more T. marmoratus with no luck.

 

[davehuth]

Thanks very much! I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.