Ox Beetle larva have emerged...now what?

[dinnervan]

I have unexpectedly come into beetle rearing after capturing wild male and female Ox beetles (aloeus strategus) in the same week. I'm in Central Texas and have never even seen these before, and still have only seen these two that I captured at the end of May. Anyway, after getting a 10 gal tank and sterilizing some potting soil and rotting hackberry, I've left them to their own devices together for about a month. They mostly seemed interested in obsessively digging holes and tunnels to hide in. After covering the tank with plastic to raise the humidity, they've become much more active on the surface and taken greater interest in the apple slices and banana jelly I offered them.

My first post on these forums was going to be to ask what on earth they were up to, but I have just spotted 3 tiny orange headed grubs through the glass of the tank! And here I wasn't even sure if they've laid eggs. So now my question is, what should I do with this arrangement since I didn't find the unhatched eggs? I tried to fill the tank with suitable substrate just for this occasion, but should I remove the adults since they seem intent on continuing to dig around? I should be able to catch the male easily with some jelly, the female is more elusive.

Other questions: Will the female continue to lay if given more undisturbed substrate? Does she need additional time with the male? Is it generally preferred to separate everyone now that eggs are hatching, or should I just let them be? I don't have any other females to put with the male (at this time. I keep looking though). Should I eventually transfer the grubs into plastic containers or can I let them all mingle in the tank? I would like to try and mount the male when he dies, so I would prefer to not have to dig through wet substrate to find him. Thanks!

 

[dinnervan]

Update: I managed to capture and move the male and female to separate enclosures, so I went ahead and emptied out the 10 gal tank. I was going to let the L1s hatch and feed in there for a while, but another thread mentioned them being cannibalistic. I managed to find 9 regular sized larva and about 13 very tiny ones, I assume just hatched. The regular sized ones have all been placed in individual containers with substrate from the tank, and the tiny hatchlings have been placed together for now. I also found a lot of little white balls that I assume must be eggs, and have put those into cups as well.

The adult male spent most of today crawling around his new tank trying to escape, but has finally settled down and burrowed. 

 

[darktheumbreon]

For most beetles, they only need to be inseminated once. I personally would leave her with more substrate after you clean out that one to see if she is capable of laying more eggs. By no means do you need to leave the male in there with her after she has already mated though, he may bother her and prevent her from laying eggs at times. I am not aware of whether or not ox beetles are cannibalistic, but for maximum growth in size you want to keep each grub in an individual container. Communal rearing is possible for most species of beetles, but I cannot recommend that in this case because I have no experience with ox beetles, just other rhino beetles. You may need to find more rotting wood for them, I am not sure if ox beetles can tolerate substrate like garden soil (which is perfectly fine for just spawning though). Also, I'm not sure if this is just me, but I don't think your pictures work.

 

[JKim]

So now my question is, what should I do with this arrangement since I didn't find the unhatched eggs? I tried to fill the tank with suitable substrate just for this occasion, but should I remove the adults since they seem intent on continuing to dig around? I should be able to catch the male easily with some jelly, the female is more elusive.

What is your ultimate purpose of rearing these ox beetles? If you want as many eggs and larvae as possible, yes, go ahead add more substrate, and remove male out of the container and keep him in separate container (glass or more durable plastic container than thin take out containers). Since you are already seeing couple larvae, you may remove female temporarily, and dig through substrate to find and pick up all eggs and larvae out of the container, and store them in rather smaller containers like 8 to 16 oz. If you don't want to spend too much money then go for 16 to 32 oz at once. You may keep couple eggs and larvae all together as they are NOT cannibalistic. Females are generally more elusive than males as they spend more time underground to lay eggs or to avoid exposure.

Other questions: Will the female continue to lay if given more undisturbed substrate? Does she need additional time with the male? Is it generally preferred to separate everyone now that eggs are hatching, or should I just let them be? I don't have any other females to put with the male (at this time. I keep looking though). Should I eventually transfer the grubs into plastic containers or can I let them all mingle in the tank? I would like to try and mount the male when he dies, so I would prefer to not have to dig through wet substrate to find him. Thanks!

Yes, females will continue to lay eggs (and actually more eggs if more space is given) in undisturbed substrate. No, she does not need any additional time with males. Just couple copulation is enough to sterilize all the eggs for females to lay until her death. It seems there is something called sperm sac in its body to store and use up as females lay eggs throughout her lifetime (especially for scarabs with shorter life). You may keep all the eggs and larvae in that 10 gallon container if you do not wish to get anymore eggs. If you want more, go ahead dig them through and prepare separate containers for them so you can reserve that 10 gallon container for your female again. You may keep adult beetles in hamster bedding (aspen bedding), or with small amount of substrate as well. Beetles generally die above surface, but sometime may be found underground. So if you don't want to dig through the dead specimen, go ahead keep it separately in a smaller container. OR just freeze it.

Update: I managed to capture and move the male and female to separate enclosures, so I went ahead and emptied out the 10 gal tank. I was going to let the L1s hatch and feed in there for a while, but another thread mentioned them being cannibalistic. I managed to find 9 regular sized larva and about 13 very tiny ones, I assume just hatched. The regular sized ones have all been placed in individual containers with substrate from the tank, and the tiny hatchlings have been placed together for now. I also found a lot of little white balls that I assume must be eggs, and have put those into cups as well.

The adult male spent most of today crawling around his new tank trying to escape, but has finally settled down and burrowed. 

As I mentioned above, they are NOT CANNIBALISTIC. Dynastine scarab beetles have three stages in larval development. L1 is the very first one since the hatch. Its head capsule size is usually around or just little larger than the egg size, so basically around or less than 1/8 inch. L2 is little bigger, and once it reaches L3, it is usually around half inch, and head capsule color is more darker like reddish brown. Tribe Oryctini (Tribe is a taxonomic unit above Genus) which includes genus Strategus has behavior or digging though underground, and they are very active. They may look like as if they are trying to escape, but they aren't. They are just very active, and loves to crawl around.