How long can stag beetle larvae go without food?

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newbie007

L3
I found some stag beetle larvae about two years ago when I originally posted, since then I was occasionally changing out their media, but I actually don't remember the last time I changed it now, it's been probably at least 6 months.  I remember someone mentioning that if they need food they will come to the top, but my two larvae just stay at the bottom and don't really do too much.  They always seem to have brown substance in their stomach.  The media itself was originally like wood chip texture, is now pretty saw dust like as it's been broken down by the larvae

I've been slow with changing the media cause I'm not sure if they might be building a pupa chamber I don't want to disturb, but they don't really look like they are doing that and just have been staying in the bottom just digging around.

Should I be concerned at all, is there any rush to change the media?

FYI media is just white rot wood that I found, very soft and breaks very easily, I just used the back of a hammer to break off some and put in the oven for an hour to kill any parasites, then misted to get a little wet and packed in the cup before putting the larvae in it.
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It's definitely time to change the substrate but if it's close to pupation, you probably don't have to do anything.

 
Alright, I went out today and got some more substrate to replace for them.

Is there a sign they are close to pupation?  The only thing I've read is they get a shriveled look to them, mine just looks normal, maybe a bit fatter now, idk, comparing him to photos from September he looks almost exactly the same.

 
September 21, 2022:
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Today:
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Okay I was trying to compare him to the circle on the lid he's sitting on, but looking at him compared to my finger he def seems a bit bigger.

 
Also sorry for multiposting, but someone mentioned on one of my previous topics about supplementing with beta pellets, is there any specific type I should use if I try this?  Anything I need to be careful/watch for (like rotting or something?)  Thanks ahead of time.

 
This larva is most likely done eating judging by the color. Assuming it's a Lucanus sp, it would be best to put some clay at the bottom and fill the container up with some substrate.

 
Alright great I will do that as well.  As far as I'm aware from limited searching there is no way to tell what species it is?  I found in Louisville KY, so it's either common stag beetle, giant stag beetle, or ceruchus piceus (unlikely based on size).

 
Oak said:
It's most likely the giant stag beetle.
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Is this just a guess or are you going off of something?  I think someone else mentioned in one of my previous posts the marbling and head shape looked like an elaphus, but tbh without a side by side I can't really tell what they are seeing.

 
newbie007 said:
Is this just a guess or are you going off of something?  I think someone else mentioned in one of my previous posts the marbling and head shape looked like an elaphus, but tbh without a side by side I can't really tell what they are seeing.
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A guess. I believe elaphus larva is easier to come across than capreolus in Lousville 

 
Oak said:
A guess. I believe elaphus larva is easier to come across than capreolus in Lousville 
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elaphus larvae are commonly under logs, capreolus are supposedly in buried root/trunks since nobody ever finds them

 
Ah okay, never heard this before.

I really don't know what my larvae are doing right now lol.  I put in new wood and added maybe 1/2 inch of clay looking soil on the bottom.  The smaller larvae went down to the bottom and then came back up above the clay, I'm assuming is eating, haven't seen him in a few days though, which is also kinda odd since normally they stay on the edges of the container.

The larger one dug down and pushed all the clay out of the way, so now the bottom of the container just looks very empty but is still in the clay section, not really sure what it's doing, hopefully it's fine though lol.

 
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So he ended up pupating, I was pretty excited when I saw it, it was an elaphus after all.  However I noticed his antlers seemed to have gotten stuck in his molt, and I eventually helped him out of it a few hours later when I saw he wasn't making progress, but unfortunately was too late.  He was pretty mangled and ended up dying a few days later.  This was maybe a month ago.

My second larvae pupated successfully last week, however it has very small mandibles, not sure if I missed that it was a female or if it's just a small mandible male capreolus, or better yet, placidus.  I guess we have to wait until it emerges.

Either way, the clay worked well, I'm wondering if I maybe caused the first to fail it's pupation due to me accidently breaking open it's chamber.

 
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