Wednesday, September 7, 2022

New Elateridae from Alan!

September Alan Shipment Pt. 1/2
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Just got in a package from my buddy Alan Jeon, with some awesome new species! 😀 In this post I'll cover the two new click beetles he collected during his recent southwestern US trip.

First off, Chalcolepidius smaragdinus. These beautiful and large click beetles are a bright metallic green, with some blue iridescence as well. Absolutely stunning species for sure, which I'll do my best to breed! 😊

Unfortunately the single female Alan was able to send is a bit old, they seemed to have emerged earlier than normal this year in the wild and so were already old when he collected them. But she's plump, and eating, so hopefully she'll lay at least a few eggs for me. 
I have her in a well ventilated container with a half inch layer of crushed rotten wood as the substrate, with some bark hides and crumpled paper towels wedged between some of the bark (as Alan has noticed this species prefers laying their eggs in crevices rather than directly into the substrate). I'm keeping her at 75-80F and will be feeding her apple and banana slices.

Here are some pics of her, she's tucked in her defensive position in all of them, I didn't want to stress her too much making her start walking around and stretching her legs/antennae just for pics:









Such a stunning species, hopefully she'll lay some eggs for me! 😄

Next up, Chalcolepidius webbii. This beautiful species is larger than smaragdinus and is equally as beautiful, the base coloration is black with a metallic blue sheen, and dense white hairs/scales bordering the pronotum and elytra. Alan sent me a pair of mated females, and while the smaller of the two looks a bit beat up, the larger female is still pretty lively, active, and even laid a couple eggs in the shipping cup! So I got a much better feeling about breeding this species. 😁

I've got these set up the same way as my smaragdinus, in a well ventilated container with a half inch layer of crushed rotten wood as the substrate, with some bark hides and crumpled paper towels wedged between some of the bark. I'm keeping them at 75-80F and will be feeding them apple and banana slices.

Here are some photos of the two and there eggs:

Large female











Small female



Eggs
The eggs of this genus are huge, just like in Alaus, hopefully I'll be as successful breeding these as I was my A.lusciosus. 🤞😅

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, huge thanks to Alan for entrusting me with these spp., I'll do my best to breed them! Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time!😉

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