I accidentally broke my derby beetle’s pupa chamber

[Endereye]

Hi, my derby is in prepupation at the moment, but I tried taking out the cell prematurely and accidentally broke it. It’s just a part of the cell that broke, I covered the hole with a damp paper towel and buried it back under the substrate. Is there anything more I should be doing? This is the hole for reference.

 

[Eduardo]

Derbys are very hardy, I once had one eclose in an entirely artificial cell. Assuming the larva is still fully mobile, just leave it alone and everything should work out just fine.

 

[Endereye]

Derbys are very hardy, I once had one eclose in an entirely artificial cell. Assuming the larva is still fully mobile, just leave it alone and everything should work out just fine.

I don’t think it was mobile. It looked to be lying out flat and a little more orange than normal. Its limbs are also very small compared to before. Do you think I could make an artificial chamber out of a different substrate, or would that harm the larva due to a potential change of ph and shock it? This substrate is 100% flake and I think it may have been a mistake because I notice that it doesn’t condense well even when moist. Maybe in the future I should do more of a 50/50 organic garden soil and flake mix.

 

[Eduardo]

You could always add a little bit of sand, but again derbys are pretty hardy. If you do suspect the larva was immobile leave it in the cell and make sure it doesn’t have any excess material or large substrate particles inside it to avoid deformities, but the larva will usually smoothen the walls out. Leave the larva alone for the most part, and good luck!