Jordan
Pupa
So I have realized one of the most desired topics is set ups. I figured I could share one that I have set up for Rugose that seems to be working well.
Unfortunately I didn't take images while setting it up but I have images of the set up I can explain.
So first I started with a small plastic "shoe box" sized box from walmart. The price was less than a dollar.
I then decided to place a thin layer of substrate on the bottom of the container consisting of oak leaves, oak wood, and manure. I then went out in the woods and found a small, soft, and light colored log. I broke it down to create smaller completely wood substrate while also keeping the log a decent size to fit in the container.
Before placing the wood substrate in a place in the breeding log in the center and then burried the sides of it in the pure wood substrate. So the set up goes dark mixed substrate on bottom with large breeding log on top and the rest filled with smaller bits of wood. The large log is meant to be an area for egg laying and larvae develpoment. The dark mixed substrate underneath was placed as an experiment to see if the beetles would prefer to lay eggs in that area.
Beetle jelly was placed in just to see if they would feed on it. The jelly seemed disturbed so I figured they might have been eating it but Alan (Lucanus) suggested that they may just be walking over the jelly or digging into it a little bit.
I used a dremel to bore out the start of holes just as motivation for the beetles to dig into the log.
This idea seemed to work well as two of the areas which I drilled the beetles dug very deep into.
I have noticed they also seems to dig into the ends more than the top. They probably dig into the area under the substrate often as well but that is not visiable. You can't see it very well in the image but there is a major male begining to bore into the end of the log.
I believe the wood is pine but I am not certain about that. The reason I believe it is pine is just due to the smell. I cannot see into the deep holes very well but hopefully some eggs have been produced in those areas.
Hope this can help out with other set ups and please feel free to give me any advice as well.
Jordan
Unfortunately I didn't take images while setting it up but I have images of the set up I can explain.
So first I started with a small plastic "shoe box" sized box from walmart. The price was less than a dollar.
I then decided to place a thin layer of substrate on the bottom of the container consisting of oak leaves, oak wood, and manure. I then went out in the woods and found a small, soft, and light colored log. I broke it down to create smaller completely wood substrate while also keeping the log a decent size to fit in the container.
Before placing the wood substrate in a place in the breeding log in the center and then burried the sides of it in the pure wood substrate. So the set up goes dark mixed substrate on bottom with large breeding log on top and the rest filled with smaller bits of wood. The large log is meant to be an area for egg laying and larvae develpoment. The dark mixed substrate underneath was placed as an experiment to see if the beetles would prefer to lay eggs in that area.
Beetle jelly was placed in just to see if they would feed on it. The jelly seemed disturbed so I figured they might have been eating it but Alan (Lucanus) suggested that they may just be walking over the jelly or digging into it a little bit.
I used a dremel to bore out the start of holes just as motivation for the beetles to dig into the log.
This idea seemed to work well as two of the areas which I drilled the beetles dug very deep into.
I have noticed they also seems to dig into the ends more than the top. They probably dig into the area under the substrate often as well but that is not visiable. You can't see it very well in the image but there is a major male begining to bore into the end of the log.
I believe the wood is pine but I am not certain about that. The reason I believe it is pine is just due to the smell. I cannot see into the deep holes very well but hopefully some eggs have been produced in those areas.
Hope this can help out with other set ups and please feel free to give me any advice as well.
Jordan
