Grain Pests from Satchell!

A few months ago I did a trade with fellow hobbyist Satchell Watts-Kerr, for a variety of grain and stored good pest beetles. He delivered some top notch animals, and this post has been a long time coming, I've just been so lazy in getting pictures and stuff. 🤣 

First off, I got a proper breeding group of Mezium affine. They've already bred for me and new adults are popping up, so I'd say things are going well. 😄 

I've got these spider beetles set up in a minimally ventilated deli cup filled with oats and dog food, with some crumpled paper towels on top. Keeping them at room temperature and bone dry.

Here are some pics of the adults:

Cute little species, glad to finally have a culture of them going!

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I also got a group of Saw-Toothed Grain Beetles, Oryzaephilus surinamensis. This is a tiny species of beetle, with adults maxing out at around 3 mms. As the name aludes to, they have serrated edges to their pronotums. Interestingly, the larvae are Campodeiform, rather than grub-like like the larvae of many grain pest spp..

I've got mine set up in a deli cup with no ventilation, filled with rice and dog food. I'm keeping them bone dry, but occasionally drop in a tiny hit of fresh fruit, which they seem to like eating once it dried out a little. Room temperature for these guys as well.

Here are some pics of adults and a larva:

Adults

Larva

These seem to be breeding and growing in numbers, so hopefully they'll continue to do well in my care.

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Last but not least, I got a nice group of Anthrenus cf. verbasci larvae. Care for these is quite easy, they'll feed on dead dried insects and a variety of dried animal materials (dog food included). Larvae of this genus are quite compact and very fuzzy, with some very dense tufts of setae on their terminal segments. Adults are rotund and rather ornately patterned.

I've got my larvae in a minimally ventilated container with a base layer of paper towels at the bottom, covered in dog food and dead insects. Keeping them bone dry, and at about 75F°.

Here are some pictures of the fuzzy little things:

Can't wait to see adults in person, hopefully these will do quite well in my collection. 😀

Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks to Satchell for the amazing trade! Hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉