Has anyone kept or bred carabids?

[klawfran3]

I thinking of getting either some firey searchers or another species of carabid and I was wondering how easy it is to care for them and breed them. I don't find any breeding info online but i have found multiple caresheets, although they are contradictory in if they can be kept communally or not. Thanks for your help/

 

[Hisserdude]

Many people have kept several different species of Carabids, (including myself), and quite a few species can live for a few years in captivity as adults. However I don't know of anyone who has come up with a method that works to rear and breed any Carabid species for more than a couple generations, (with the possible exception of some Cicindelinae species). Carabid larvae generally have extremely poor survival rates in captivity, and can be quite picky when it comes to prey.

 

[klawfran3]

Many people have kept several different species of Carabids, (including myself), and quite a few species can live for a few years in captivity as adults. However I don't know of anyone who has come up with a method that works to rear and breed any Carabid species for more than a couple generations, (with the possible exception of some Cicindelinae species). Carabid larvae generally have extremely poor survival rates in captivity, and can be quite picky when it comes to prey.

I was thinking since they're mainly caterpillar hunters I could keep them on a staple diet of waxworms, do you have any links to anyone who's bred them so I can see how I care for the eggs and get the adults to breed? I would love ot be able to figure out how to raise them.

 

[Hisserdude]

Yes, waxworms should work nicely for Calosoma, pre-killed crickets and mealworms work good too, (they kinda suck at catching fast moving prey from what I've heard).

Orin McMonigle wrote a short section on breeding these in his book, "The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Beetles", his adults laid eggs in a 70 gallon tank that had a lot of leaf litter on top of the substrate and a clean up crew of orange Porcellio isopods in it, the larvae were really weak and fed on isopods and pre-killed crickets, he was able to rear some to adulthood but the amount he reared was fewer than the number of adults he started with.

Found this old thread on Arachnoboards, apparently the guy thought he had gotten larvae from his Pasimachus but they ended up being Calosoma. Unfortunately no one has ever found a way to repeatedly breed these in captivity, and I'm not sure anyone even knows the exact impetus for oviposition.

 

[klawfran3]

Yes, waxworms should work nicely for Calosoma, pre-killed crickets and mealworms work good too, (they kinda suck at catching fast moving prey from what I've heard).

Orin McMonigle wrote a short section on breeding these in his book, "The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Beetles", his adults laid eggs in a 70 gallon tank that had a lot of leaf litter on top of the substrate and a clean up crew of orange Porcellio isopods in it, the larvae were really weak and fed on isopods and pre-killed crickets, he was able to rear some to adulthood but the amount he reared was fewer than the number of adults he started with.

Found this old thread on Arachnoboards, apparently the guy thought he had gotten larvae from his Pasimachus but they ended up being Calosoma. Unfortunately no one has ever found a way to repeatedly breed these in captivity, and I'm not sure anyone even knows the exact impetus for oviposition.

ahh okay, thank you for your help! If I end up finding some in the area I'll attempt to breed by giving them the most natural environment i can but I won't get any hopes up. Thank you!

 

[DynastinaeLucanidae]

From what I've observed and researched, beetles in the family Carabidae are generally difficult to rear because of how unique their niche is. A breeder will have to set up an enclosure similar to their natural environment in order for them to oviposit and allow the larvae to thrive. Such factors at hand are humidity, temperature, type of substrate, type of vegetation, abundance of prey items, etc.

Keep in mind that some of these beetles (mostly tigers) are often observed to be indicator species, so their natural habitat is often pristine and undisturbed.

 

[Beetle-Experience]

I second what DynastinaeLucanidae just mentioned, and wanted to add that - when I have heard of insectariums breeding C. scrutator successfully, they used silk moth caterpillars and needed to have a lot of caterpillar frass in the substrate to encourage oviposition.