My First CB Eleodes nigrina Adults!

Well, I've done it, I've reared up my first Eleodes nigrina adults, which is almost certainly a first for the hobby, and perhaps a first for science too! 😁 The first two adults eclosed on the night of 7/13, both appear to be males, and they had darkened completely by the next day. I of course moved them to more well ventilated deli cups with a thin layer of drier substrate, my typical Teneb rearing protocol. A female has since matured as well, hopefully more are on the way!

Unfortunately they've still got quite a few grain mites on them, which thankfully are already dispersing from them in small numbers and will likely be completely destroyed by the predatory mites in the main enclosure once I add them to it. So not too much of a concern, but it's annoying that the literally the one Eleodes species I currently have that I wanted to document all life stages of happened to be the only darkling species in my collection to have a grain mite outbreak... 🙃 But that's life I guess.

Anyways, here are pictures of one of the freshly matured males, covered in grain mites:

Here it is, freshly matured still:

Same individual, darkened by the next day:

Gonna let them harden up in isolation for another week or so, then I'll dump them into the breeding enclosure and hopefully get the next generation going, at which point I'll probably be able to start selling larvae, fingers crossed! 🤞

Speaking of which, I've got some other Eleodes larvae available right now, the "For Sale" page has been resurrected, check it out, the availability is a bit limited at the moment, but that will hopefully change in the coming months! 

Anyways, that's gonna do it for today, thanks for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, stay distanced, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉

Eleodes nigrina Pupae

My Eleodes nigrina larvae have started pupating! 😁 I actually noticed pupae several days ago, but didn't get any pictures until today.

Unfortunately they do have some grain mites attached to them, there's been a little outbreak of them in the main enclosure for some reason, I think because I never added Oribatid or predatory mites to their enclosure initially... Both have found their way into the setup now, but the grain mites had a bit of a head start, and some attached themselves to the larvae prior to me isolating them.
In any case, the grain mites are not gonna harm the pupae in these numbers, and while the resulting adults will have some on them, they'll fall off once they're moved back to their relatively dry enclosure, where they've not affixed themselves to the adults already in there, only the larvae hanging out in the moist corner of the enclosure.

Well, here are some pictures of one of the pupae:

With any luck I'll start seeing new adults in a couple of weeks! 😁 They pupated just fine in moist, compressed coconut fiber, and so far they seem to be handling a standard, humid pupation setup just fine, so I think they'll be easy to rear to maturity.

Well, that's gonna do it for today, thanks for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe and distanced, I'll see you all in the next post! 😉

Some Nice Eleodes Updates!

I am FINALLY getting offspring from my Eleodes obscura now! 😁 I moved them to a larger enclosure a few days ago, this time with a vertical humidity gradient, with the bottom centimeter being made up of moist, pure coconut fiber, and the top couple centimeters was made up of their original sandy coconut fiber mix.
I spotted some eggs the day after I rehoused them, at the bottom of their enclosure in the coconut fiber, and so thought that they must need a vertical humidity gradient to induce oviposition, and that they maybe preferred coconut fiber to the sandy mix I had given them as far as oviposition goes. However, I found larvae around two days later, and there is simply no way their eggs hatch that fast, so they've obviously been laying eggs for longer than I thought, I just couldn't see them as well in the sandy substrate. 😅

So nice to finally have gotten some offspring from this large species, I'll of course take some pictures once the larvae get a little bit bigger, for now I'll be leaving them alone. In the meantime, here are some pictures of a bunch of males feeding on some apple, (I'm collecting a bunch for someone, as I myself have no use for males at this point, and unlike females they are relatively abundant outside):

Looking forward to rearing this species, hopefully I can get some nice sized CB adults! 😄

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Also, another positive Eleodes update, surprisingly some of my E.nigrina larvae are starting to construct pupal cells already! 😃 Was not expecting them to mature so fast! 😅 So far the egg output has been rather low with this species, and the larvae definitely seem to prefer a more humid substrate than I thought they would, but other than that they appear to be hardy and evidently are quite fast growing!

I've isolated the larger larvae that were making cells and moved them to 2 oz deli cups with an inch of moist, compressed coconut fiber inside. They've made pupal cells again, and I'll be sure to post pictures of a pupa once they start pupating! 😁

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, hope everyone enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Eleodes Updates

Alrighty, I've got some Eleodes updates for ya'll, so let's dig in! 😀

First off, my Eleodes nigrina. My females have been laying more eggs, they don't appear to be the most prolific of Eleodes, but having four is gonna ensure that I still get a lot of offspring... 😅 Some of my older larvae have grown quite a bit, I'd say they're a third of the way grown in terms of length already!

Here are some pictures I took of one of the larger individuals:

Not the best pictures, but hey, better than nothing... 😂 I'll be sure to keep you all updated on these, so far they seem rather easy to breed.

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Now, for a kind of disappointing update, unfortunately I do suspect I was right in my original assumption that my "Eleodes cf. extricata" male was a male E.rileyi, as I just found a female of E.rileyi in the same area, and looking at her pronotum I really don't see much of a difference between hers and the male's in terms of the acute anterior angles...

Here are some pictures of the female I just found:

I could be wrong, but I do think the male my sister found is actually a male E.rileyi, like this female... I'll keep looking though, maybe I'm wrong and I'll find some E.extricata females! 😅

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As far as my Eleodes obscura go, I unfortunately still have not seen offspring, neither eggs or larvae... BUT, my females have finally started burrowing, which is a good sign of egg laying, so fingers crossed I see some larvae in there soon! 🤞

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And last but not least, just thought I'd let you all know that my Eleodes sp. (subgenus Blapylis) substrate is teeming with tiny larvae now. 😄 They seem just as easy to breed as I remember them being so far!

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Success With Eleodes nigrina, & a Hemipteran Mystery!

I did it, I got Eleodes nigrina larvae!!! 😁 Found an L1 larva at the bottom of the enclosure yesterday, along with some fresh new eggs. So far this species seems pretty easy to breed in captivity!

Again, taking pictures through the bottom of the enclosure, not the best quality pics, but they were never going to be since this is a tiny 3mm Eleodes grub we're talking about here. 😅

So now I've just gotta rear these cuties to adulthood now, which hopefully won't be too hard at all!

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Now for something a little more intriguing, my sister found a group of interesting looking eggs on top of a mound of dirt near a construction site, I can only assume they were laid by a confused adult bug after one of our recent rains, because they are a little dimpled and obviously were supposed to be laid somewhere more consistently humid. And yes, when I say bug, I mean it, these eggs appear to be those of a true bug, order Hemiptera. I'm guessing a type of stink bug, they look quite similar to these eggs on Bugguide ID'd as Chlorochroa ligata, (not that I'm saying that's what species I have, but I am confident these are indeed some type of stink bug). 

Here are my eggs:

Pretty right? I've decided to try and keep them alive until they hatch, after which I'll more than likely release them, as I'm not too interested in breeding shield bugs, especially since these probably aren't a predatory species.

Well, that's gonna do it for today guys, I hope you all enjoyed! Might be getting some neat new additions here in May, we'll see, so stay tuned for future posts! Take care, stay distanced, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Eleodes nigrina Eggs!

Well, about 3-4 days ago I went on another quick bug hunt outside, and was able to find another Eleodes nigrina female, as well as another female Eleodes sp. (subgenus Blapylis). Now that's great news by itself, but when I went to go put the new E.nigrina female in with the one I caught a little while back, I looked at the bottom of the enclosure and saw an egg up against the plastic! 😁 

So it appears my first female has been busy, and I can assure you that where there's one Eleodes egg, there are many more, however said eggs are around 1 mm long, so they're very hard to find except when laid against the glass. 

I did snap a couple pictures of the egg, it's kinda hard to take decent pictures through the plastic so this is the best I could do, but figured I should document each life major stage if possible considering I don't think anyone's bred this species before, (or if they have, I don't think they've published pictures of all life stages):

Tenebrionid eggs can sometimes be difficult to discern from random pale granules of substrate in enclosures, but healthy eggs tend to be perfectly spherical or oval, no jagged edges, and are typically glossy in texture. Egg color can range from bright white to yellow, often slightly transparent. Substrate often sticks to eggs, and thus when sifting through substrate, unless the species lays large eggs, you're unlikely to spot them unless they are laid right up against the sides or bottom of the enclosure.

Anyways, hopefully these Eleodes nigrina eggs will hatch here soon, I am looking forward to rearing the larvae up to adulthood! 😄

Well, that's gonna do it for today's post, thank you for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed, stay distanced, and I'll see you next post! 😉

A Couple of Nice Finds! Pt. 2

So today I went back to the spot I collected in a few days ago, as I realized if my female Eleodes nigrina and E.obscura were recently matured females, just starting to come to the surface, they may not have been mated... Luckily, I quickly found a male of each! (Two male nigrina actually, but I only collected one).

Here are some pictures of the Eleodes obscura mating behavior, the male got right to work! 😂

I may release both males in a week or so, they can be slightly annoying to females and impede their oviposition progress, I just need to make sure my females have been fertilized, then the males can go back to whatever they were doing before I caught them. 😛

Interestingly, both the obscura and nigrina females have eaten a LOT already, the obscura female alone ate more chick feed than my entire Bantua sp. "Namibia" colony does in the same amount of time... And I've got a few dozen of those! I hope this means they're stocking up on food for egg production, we will see! 😁

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While collecting the obscura and nigrina females a few days ago, I also found a male Eleodes sp. (subgenus Blapylis), a cute little species I've bred before, but since it was a male, it was kinda useless to me at that moment. Today, while finding the obscura and nigrina males, I found a female subgenus Blapylis... 😂 Hopefully she's been mated, if not, looks like I'll have to go digging for a male... Again. 😅

Got her set up in a little, well ventilated Tupperware with coconut fiber as the substrate, will keep a corner of the substrate humid, the rest bone dry, and offer chick feed for food. This species is very easy to breed, not picky at all, and I may have use for them as feeders in the future, as their full grown larvae are almost Tenebrio molitor sized...

Hopefully she'll do as well for me as this species has done in the past, haven't seen any of these for a couple years now, had no idea they were right under my nose! 😀

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay distanced, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉

A Couple of Nice Finds!

So yesterday I went out looking for some interesting bugs in the field behind my house, before it's completely razed down to the ground for more houses... At first I wasn't finding anything interesting, but there was a pile of old wooden planks on the ground next to a badger burrow. Objects like this on the ground make for perfect cover for a wide variety of invertebrates, and given the size of the planks, I was hoping some larger genera like Eleodes might be hiding under them... Well, I was right! 😁
I found two Eleodes species, one adult female of each to be exact. We'll cover the larger of the two here first; a female Eleodes obscura!

Now I found males of this species near my house last year, but didn't see any females. This year I've lucked out and found an adult female, hopefully mated, (if I see any males I'll nab one though, unless the female has already oviposited fertile eggs by then).

I've had a group of this species before, but never got my females to oviposit, (all larvae in their enclosure somehow ended up being E.hispilabris larvae). That could have been for any number of reasons, but I suspect they didn't like plain coconut fiber much for oviposition, probably need some sand mixed in... They also had poor ventilation in their enclosure though, which may have caused problems as well, (they didn't live all that long come to think of it).
So I'll try plain coconut fiber again for a couple weeks, and if I see no signs of oviposition, I'll get some sand and give her a good 50/50 mix, which would probably get her ovipositing.

Here are some pictures of her, she's a fairly small female, but this species can get really big and really heavy, hoping to rear up some monster sized individuals myself!

Hopefully she does well and lays some eggs for me! 😄

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Now, for the individual I'm most excited about, I was lucky enough to actually find an adult female Eleodes nigrina! 😁 I've only seen two males of this species before, never an adult female! This species is quite uncommon here, so I'm hoping this female is both mated, and will prove easy to get to oviposit, I've never bred a species from this particular subgenus before! (Eleodes subgenus Metablapylis).

I'll set her up on a standard coconut fiber substrate, and add sand if she refuses to oviposit, (this is my general strategy for breeding Eleodes, usually works well).

Here are some pictures of her:

Quite excited to breed this species, hopefully I can do so successfully! 😀

Well, that's gonna be it for this post everyone, I hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay distanced, and I'll see you all next time! 😉