Eleodes clavicornis, Arenivaga tonkawa & Chorisoneura texensis Photos

The Eleodes clavicornis pair I got a few months ago have been busy, there are quite a few larva in the cage and the majority of them have been pupating! Surprisingly they have been trying to pupate in the cage they all share, which is unusual for Eleodes, especially considering the substrate is not that deep and periodically dries out.

Of course when they pupate in the dry areas of the cage they die or suffer horrible mismolts, so I've been separating the pre-pupa and putting them in small deli-cups on top of moist coconut fiber. The survival rate has been about 50%, many of the pupa end up "melting" into piles of mush, which is pretty weird, and may be due to limited ventilation. Despite the die offs, I have already reared a few to adulthood, so I should have a nice breeding population soon! :)

Here are some pictures of the larva:

Pre-pupa

I'm glad to be breeding darkling beetles again, those weird, dry-resistant mites that I was dealing with in my Tenebrionid enclosures last year seem to have disappeared and have been replaced with a different, less prolific species of mite that is much less dry resistant and does not really stress out my darklings. :)

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My Arenivaga tonkawa have been doing good, can't quite tell if any of my females are adults but I think they are, or are at least close. The male looks sub-adult to me, so hopefully he'll mature soon. Anyways, I took some photos of them a couple of days ago, so here they are!

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My Chorisoneura texensis have been doing very well, and seem to be growing fast! I already have what seem to be pre-sub/sub-adults in the enclosure! I'm hoping within a couple of months I'll have some captive reared adults, the first ones ever recorded!

Here are a few pictures of one of the larger nymphs:

That's gonna do it for today, hope you guys enjoyed, and I will see you all next time!