Ometeo Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 Imagery of a major male. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Clausen Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 Nice photos of a beautiful species, but photos don't really do them justice, do they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ometeo Posted April 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 They most certainly do not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluefrogtat2 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 gorgeous andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ometeo Posted June 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 Unfortunately I was only able to find two brood balls in their container. Here is an image of one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ometeo Posted June 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 PIc Heavy, but this is a neat time-lapse set of pictures from a 40 min cell phone video of P. vindex feeding. I had been too caught up watching them do their thing before it occurred to me to film them, but this is still the bulk of of it. Male's tunnel is on the right, the females on the left. 02:21 03:17 The male has now cut away a small section and is working on bringing it down into it's feeding chamber. 05:48 12:51 Notice the female's progress, versus the male's progress, particularly give the size of food on either tunnel. 17:10 18:07 The female is now done storing the excrement directly above her tunnel, she comes out, waves her antennae in search of more, and realizes there is a small amount close to her. 18:53 She finds a small amount very close to her tunnel at 19:07 And begins working away, using her "shovel" clypeus to cut at it from underneath. 19:35 Unknown to her, that little piece of food belonged to a major male that tunneled next to her, she gets startled and mounts a quick retreat to her tunnel. 20:38 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ometeo Posted June 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 About a minute later she decides she is going for it anyway, so she shoves the male out of the way and begins to take the food away. 21:39 She has now nearly buried all of it 23:45 The male, (let's anthropomorphize) apparently dumbfounded, just sits there as the female begins to close the entrance to her tunnel. 27:48 32:59 33:04 34:11 34:54 She has completely closed off the entrance, while the make decides to feed on the leftovers. 39:25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ometeo Posted June 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 Here is the product of the breeding process, brood ball "A" with a window to see what was going on inside. The brood ball had been checked, and a small window had been cut to check on the grub prior to taking these shots (June 15th). Two days later (today June 17th) the window had been repaired (patched), and it had to be re-opened for the images below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oak Posted June 18, 2012 Report Share Posted June 18, 2012 very nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Minard Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 Is keeping this species smelly? 0.o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ometeo Posted June 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 You know Ryan, not really. They are rather quick at burying the dung, I will admit however that I have air circulation in the room where I keep the animals. the only real smell cam from a time I left a small bag (I packed their meals in sandwich bags ) in the room, the next day the whole room smelled funky, had to open the window and turn on the fans for a while. The dung itself I would freeze (outdoor fridge), so there was never a real issue keeping them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Minard Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 You know Ryan, not really. They are rather quick at burying the dung, I will admit however that I have air circulation in the room where I keep the animals. the only real smell cam from a time I left a small bag (I packed their meals in sandwich bags ) in the room, the next day the whole room smelled funky, had to open the window and turn on the fans for a while. The dung itself I would freeze (outdoor fridge), so there was never a real issue keeping them. What kind of dung? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ometeo Posted June 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Cow dung. The first meal of the pair was dog poop, I was able to secure cow dung on a regular basis the day after that. I would pre-pack small zip lock bags full of dung and freeze them, then just bring them out as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Posted June 21, 2012 Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 lovely beetles LOL the grubs are adorable in there little cells! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ometeo Posted December 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2012 I did not realize I had not uploaded an image of the breeding results.Here is the female I was able to bring up to adulthood, her elytra were deformed, likely due to the irregular surface inside her broodball, irregularities caused by me by the constant opening of a viewing window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a.ojala Posted April 5, 2013 Report Share Posted April 5, 2013 On average how many eggs does a single female lay? Also do you think horse dung will work as a substitute to cow dung ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mashku Posted April 17, 2013 Report Share Posted April 17, 2013 Awesome ! Great work Ometeo ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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