Short-lived larvae

I have only Tenebrionid beetles in my terrarium.  For a long time, I only had various species of DFBs, plus a five little Tenebs.  But in May and July 2020, I ordered more species of Tenebs from Bugs in Cyberspace, including six large darkling beetles and two large Eleodes obscura.  Then, a week ago, I noticed a lot of white specks on the substrate.  Since the DFBs don't breed in captivity unless great efforts are made and great care is taken (e.g. Aquarimax), I didn't expect the other Tenebs would breed.  Finally, the penny dropped - eggs!  Looking closely with reading glasses and a magnifying glass, I saw well over a dozen very minute larvae, 1/4" long or less, wriggling about.  One was bigger, about 3/8" long; I could see its segments.  I was very excited about this new development, though I knew that getting any larvae to pupate, not to mention the pupae to metamorphose into adults, was a long shot.  I put down some slices of organic Persian cucumber (skin cut off), which is a favorite food of many of my beetles.  I thought this would be good food & hydration for the little newbies.  But the next day, all of them had expired!  I wrote to Peter Clausen about the experience and he asked me why I thought they expired -- had I separated them?  I told him no, I just left them alone.  It was disappointing, but interesting to see the first two stages of the reproductive cycle.      😡

 
How moist was the substrate? A lot of Tenebs need at least one or two corners of the substrate to be kept moist, if kept completely bone dry, the larvae of most species dry up and dessicate rapidly.

Moist foods alone are not enough to keep small desert Teneb larvae from drying up, that only seems to work for certain grain storage pests like Tenebrio

 
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