Pictures of my Blue Death Feigning Beetle (Asbolus verrucosus) larvae and eggs.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... e71f053680

I love those. The death feigning is really convincing.

Wade

The new eggs have hatched. No signs of pupation yet.

Wade,

Yes, they are one of my favorite insects. Peter talked about how great they were but I did not really appreciate them until I put them on my office desk. Now I watch them a lot. Probably too much.

I'm not that familiar with these but they are quite pretty. Does the death feint involve being on their back?

The last pic of the solfugid prior to her dropping the eggs almost makes me feel sorry for her. The pressure has to be tremendous. I always thought it was next to impossible to keep these for long let alone breed them. Nice work MrCrackerpants.

The death feining is actually quite convincing, legs curled in and everything!

Tenebrionid beetles in general make neat captives. Few are as colorful as these guys though. I wouldn't mind finding a few in AZ this year.

Wade

Any idea what specific Sonoran Desert habitat they live in?

Thanks. She and the eggs died but I have a juvenile in a was very small pill bottle about the same diameter as its body. It has been doing really well for a month now. This minimal enclosure was suggested. I think it is working. It has also been suggested to feed them very little and I have been doing this.

No, usuallly when I've seen them they were collected by other people.

Wade

Sorry to hear you lost the big female and all of the eggs. I thought breeding tarantulas was iffy, wouldn't stand a chance with these I tell ya.

Thanks for answering my question. I wouldn't mind finding a few of these myself in AZ.

Thanks.

No problem.

UPDATE: Still no adult beetles. Currently, I have 3 larva that are 1.5 inches. Any suggestions? : )

I may just take a long time, the adults are vey long-lived (10 years + in some cases) so it wouldn't surprise me if larval development were slow as well. Is the substrate something that's compactable? I know some tenibs build pupal chambers, not sure if that's the case here.

Also, there's a book on rearing darkiling beetles available here that might have helpful info: http://www.angelfire.com/oh3/elytraandantenna/

Wade

Hey Mr,

I wish I did. Nearly all the information out there, aside from Orin's book, is on Tenebrio molitor which doesn't have a comparable life span(from what I know, anyway). I'll echo Wade on the lifespan/development question. I still have numbers of larvae multiplying in the communal Teneb tank, but of course no idea which species the larvae may be...I need a better camera to get the details and have yet to ID each species that lives inside. Quite a few are at that same size and late at night I find many of them feeding on the remains of food left for adults. In fact, I think they eat much more than the adults. No pupation here, either. Good luck!

John

Thanks Wade and John. Yes, the sub was compactable. I recently dug very deep (8 inches) into the substrate and found many dead larvae. Also found that the adults had eaten a few that had died and dried out.

I've had similar experiences with Eleodes. I usually manage to raise some of them, but nowhere near the number that occur. Now that I live in the range of E. obscurus I'm hoping to raise the larvae as feeders for other stuff!

Some species might pupate inside of dead wood, or there could be a seasonal change that you would have simulate to get them to pupate. I would check out that book if you haven't already. Since I don't own it myself (I need to get it though) I don't know if the exact info you need concrning this species is in there, but I'm certain that it will have lots of great info on raising tenibs in general and that can't hurt!

Wade

Thanks, Wade. I set up a few more environments with varying humidity, substrate, etc. Interestingly, the only larvae that has survived is in a bran, oat, dog food dry substrate with an organic apple wedge. So far, so good. The larva is 1.5 inches.

They all died. I am giving up on getting this species to reproduce in captivity. I can't figure them out. If you get them to reproduce please let us know what you did. Thank.