Monday, February 16, 2015

My Creophilus maxillosus

This is how i have been keeping my Creophilus maxillosus, The hairy rove beetle. I keep the adults in a 24 oz tupperware container, with 2-3 inches of very moist/wet coconut fiber. I started out with 3 adults, I think 2 males and one female. The female laid eggs in the coconut fiber, usually at the bottom of the cage. I separated the eggs into this:


I put the eggs in the top left cell, which has a thin layer of moist coconut fiber in it. When the eggs hatch, I separate the larva and put them in the other cells. 2 larva per cell, depending on the cell size and larva size. The bigger the larva get, the less friendly they are towards cage mates. I keep the larva on half an inch of coconut fiber,which I keep moist.The larva eat dead mealworms, they are too weak to eat most live bugs, except maggots, which is what they eat in the wild. I gave them pieces of toilet paper rolls to hide under. Here are some pics of the larva:

Medium larva
Large larva
Large larva with unusual reddish brown head
After roughly 11 days of semi-daily feeding, the larva start to look for a place to pupate. For pupation I put the larva in small cages (baby food container sized), with an inch of moist compressed coco-fiber. The larva dig to the bottom and construct a pupal cell. Here are some pics of the pupa:

Front view
Back view
After about a week and a half of waiting, the pupae turn black. 2-3 days later, it ecloses:

Pupa 2 days before emergence
Adult shortly after emergence

Breeding these has been fun, and not too challenging, and I hope I can keep on breeding them for years to come! Will keep you guys updated on these!

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