Do beetles lay unfertilized eggs?

[Garin]

In general, do beetles lay unfertilized eggs if they have not mated? I know that moths and mantids will lay eggs whether they have mated or not and they will not be fertile.

Do beetles do this? And more specifically, the Megasoma species.

 

Thank you!

[Hisserdude]

Probably, I know that roaches do it too, wouldn't be surprised if beetles lay unfertilized eggs as well. If your female is a wild caught adult though, it's almost certainly fertilized.

[Garin]

Ok, that's what I thought but I was just curious. Thanks.

I wonder if any of the beetle breeders on the board have seen a captive bred female that was not mated lay eggs?

Thanks for the information.

Garin

[Shade of Eclipse]

My experience is that some species do not lay eggs if they have not mated. Many species live short lives and feed primarily on carbohydrates, so they do not produce many, if any eggs during their active adult life since they do not have the stores of fats and proteins to do so. Maybe carnivorous beetles might produce infertile eggs. If you think about it in terms of biology, females that have the tendency to lay eggs before they've mated would not have produced many, if any offspring. That behavior should theoretically be selected against.

 

My beetles have never laid eggs without mating, and won't even do the same behavior you see in ovipositing females unless they've mated. I've had females die of old age without mating and they did not lay eggs. They did seem to live longer than those that did lay eggs. It's probably because digging or chewing and compacting substrate during oviposition uses a lot of energy.

[Garin]

Thanks Shade, great information as always. You should write a book on beetle breeding.

Since we are on the subject of the fertility of eggs, do you guys find that most eggs hatch out to larvae? I'm sort of guessing it's a pretty high percent, like 90%? I have only had D granti eggs in the past but I think I remember that most of them hatched. However, I ended up giving away the L1 larvae because I didn't have to time to take care of them.

Thanks again.