DeadInTheBasement Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 found them under slightly rotting logs and they are HUGE! Quote
Lucanus Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 Congratulation! They are stag beetle larvae. Quote
DeadInTheBasement Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Posted March 9, 2011 awesome! i am kind of confused what kind of substrate to use for them and i cant find any care sheets online for them and i know people offer dogfood and fruit to dynastes larvae to eat do stags also benefit from this? Quote
Lucanus Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 awesome! i am kind of confused what kind of substrate to use for them and i cant find any care sheets online for them and i know people offer dogfood and fruit to dynastes larvae to eat do stags also benefit from this? I think you should use the same wood that you collected larvae from. I tried the dog food but it did not work. I ended up with a large amount of mites. Quote
DeadInTheBasement Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Posted March 9, 2011 can they be housed together or should i keep them seperated? Quote
Peter Clausen Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 If you want them to be big adults, separate them and feed them lots of rotting hardwood. Quote
DeadInTheBasement Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Posted March 9, 2011 how much space does each one need?.... 16 ounce container work? Quote
Dynastes Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 Yes. It looks like some of those may be fully grown. Quote
Lucanus Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 I keep the females in a same container since they aren't really big. However, I keep my males separately to develop large adults. I have one female that I am keeping in a rotten wood to see the behavior of the larva inside a rotting wood. Quote
DeadInTheBasement Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Posted March 9, 2011 ok i have them all seperated and in a substrate of 50% rotting wood and 50% leaf litter i was unable to get back the logs i found them at but i am hoping this substrate will work well since none of them were found inside a log but under the logs in the soil is there any way to determine what kind of stags they are? some of them were found miles apart Quote
Beetle-Experience Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 DeadInTheBasement, Larvae of the four US Lucanus species look exactly alike. We would either have to: a. Guess the species by the area of the US you live in b. Wait until they pupate Overall, not knowing where you are from I would say (from most to least probable): L. capreolus L. elaphus L. placidus L. mazama I have found L. elaphus grubs directly under a rotten pine tree before. Steven Quote
Beetle-Experience Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 ...also, I would suggest the dry dog food. Only put one piece in at a time, and remove any leftovers before adding a fresh one. For some reason people will mix several pieces in with the substrate which only leads to disastrously mite-y consequences. Quote
cre0broter Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 how'd you find em? I've been looking for L.capreolus larvae for a long time!!! also, why do people have to separate the larvae after finding them? Quote
Beetle-Experience Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 Actually, just rolling over rotten logs in an area of north Louisiana where they had been found before. I also found one adult male with a blacklight that same night. Sometimes Stag larvae will attack each other. I have seen one L.c. hatchling kill another hatchling before. Quote
Beetle-Experience Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 The only grubs I rear together are Cetonids (flower beetles). Quote
DeadInTheBasement Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Posted March 9, 2011 seems these three range here in Tennessee L. capreolus L. elaphus L. placidus i am hoping for lucanus elaphus but i am thrilled with any of the three i found them directly under HUGE logs(2-3ft thick) and the logs were not very decayed i am guessing they had only been fallen down 2-3 years very deep in the forest they were all in 4 different locations miles apart all in the same situation now that i think about it i probably should have separated the larvae when i found them to keep track of which were found together lol Cre0broter: i know some species of beetle larvae will devour each other given the chance so they are kept separated and peter says being separated will make them grow larger! good luck finding larvae i have been looking for these for 3 years but i guess its easy once you find a good location Quote
Beetle-Experience Posted March 9, 2011 Report Posted March 9, 2011 Awesome. I think L.e. are a lot more common for you up there than down here in Louisiana - so you may have hit the jack pot. Keep us posted when they pupate. Whatever species it is, when you have a male that pupates you will be able to tell what they are right away. Quote
Dynastes Posted March 10, 2011 Report Posted March 10, 2011 Use only rotten wood, they are mostly grown so you might not lose most of them, but you're taking a big risk of losing them all. Larvae of the four US Lucanus species look exactly alike. No, the sutures on the face are very different. Also the head coloration is different but that's not definitive. Quote
Lucanus Posted March 10, 2011 Report Posted March 10, 2011 The shape of the mandible doesn't look like the L. elaphus larvae I have but look more like L. capreolus. But I am not very certain about the species since there can be a variation on mandibles. Quote
DeadInTheBasement Posted March 10, 2011 Author Report Posted March 10, 2011 i will go collect some wood for them tomorrow Quote
Beetle-Experience Posted March 10, 2011 Report Posted March 10, 2011 No, the sutures on the face are very different. Also the head coloration is different but that's not definitive. Hey Orin, Cool. Is that something you figured out? I will have to take a look at L.c. -vs- L.e. when I get home. Every publication I've found stops at Genus for Lucanus larval ID. I know at least one specifically mentioned an inability to ID beyond that. Do you have all four sp. figured? We need a: Larval Descriptions of Four Species of Lucanus Scopoli 1763 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) with a Key for Identification: O. McMonigle Quote
Dynastes Posted March 10, 2011 Report Posted March 10, 2011 It's something I noticed years ago but I assumed it was something already documented. When you see them you'll see the sutures are notably different. Take some good, straight-on shots of your larvae and we'll see about putting together that article. However, I'm sure we won't find Pseudolucanus placidus larvae. Hey Orin, Cool. Is that something you figured out? I will have to take a look at L.c. -vs- L.e. when I get home. Every publication I've found stops at Genus for Lucanus larval ID. I know at least one specifically mentioned an inability to ID beyond that. Do you have all four sp. figured? We need a: Larval Descriptions of Four Species of Lucanus Scopoli 1763 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) with a Key for Identification: O. McMonigle Quote
DeadInTheBasement Posted March 11, 2011 Author Report Posted March 11, 2011 they are now in a 100% wood substrate and being kept in a room that is 65-74 F depending on the time of day Quote
Lucanus Posted March 11, 2011 Report Posted March 11, 2011 Hey Orin, Cool. Is that something you figured out? I will have to take a look at L.c. -vs- L.e. when I get home. Every publication I've found stops at Genus for Lucanus larval ID. I know at least one specifically mentioned an inability to ID beyond that. Do you have all four sp. figured? We need a: Larval Descriptions of Four Species of Lucanus Scopoli 1763 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) with a Key for Identification: O. McMonigle What I noticed with my larvae are that L. elaphus larvae have more curved mandibles while L. capreolus larvae have a really straight mandibles. I need to check my larvae to see more difference. Quote
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