# Pasimachus larvae



## Galapoheros (Apr 13, 2012)

Finally, Pasimachus larvae!  I've only seen one or two claims on the internet claiming the pic is of a Pasimachus larvae.  I'm having doubts about that ID, looks diff from this.  Maybe it will change as it molts.  I expect a larvae a little more gnarlier as it grows than that buguide pic.  Anyway, I found more baby larvae in there and had adults running around in there for about a year I guess so they have to be Pasimachus, unless something really strange happened.  Maybe I should search them out of that terr and raise them separately, raise them to adult to see how all that pans out, I'm a little curious and have the time, should be pretty easy imo.  Of course, they will eat each other if I don't also haha.

Reactions: Like 2


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## ZephAmp (Apr 13, 2012)

Excellent job! I wondered what the babies of those mini monsters looked like.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 13, 2012)

Well, I really didn't do anything, been trying to raise millipedes in there but get beetles instead haha.  I'd been wondering for a while also, here are some more pics.  I grabbed 15 or so out of there, there are more in there but ..oh well.





































I think I noticed them right when they were really getting hungry.  Maybe I will keep several together to see if many are left in the end or only a few.  I'm guessing these haven't molted yet, if so it seems the eggs would be pretty large.

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## beetleman (Apr 13, 2012)

Wow! Very cool little buggers,it would be very interesting to see them grow. Awesome


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## Galapoheros (Apr 13, 2012)

I'm a little curious about it also.  I just let the 3 adults go way out in my backyard.  Seeing the larvae was basically why I was keeping them but then I practically stopped thinking about it after nothing for so long.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ZephAmp (Apr 14, 2012)

If they're anything like rove beetles, those larvae should grow VERY quickly through all their instars, and lots of food will be a must. Good luck with pupation; I'd think that keeping them moist or giving them some sort of substrate to curl up in would be sufficient.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 14, 2012)

I've kept other pred ground beetle larvae, yes very fast growing, like caterpillars making it in a few months.  The reason I was kind of fired up about it this particular time is, well try to find a pic of the larval stage of this species, that's why.  I haven't been able to find a pic anywhere, not one that's 100%.  I don't believe that is one at bugguide.  The thing I'm not 100% sure of is that this is the only pred beetle I've had in there.  I'm 99% sure this is the only sps I've had in there, I'll hang on to some at least to find out.  I'd be real surprised if they turned out to be something else.


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## zonbonzovi (Apr 14, 2012)

I got nothin' but good wishes that these turn out to be what you think they are.  Behind C. scrutator, these are my favorite native predatory beetle.  Would have presumed that keeping them in arid conditions would be the way to go but your setup shows otherwise.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 14, 2012)

I've also seen them in e tx, pretty humid and can be really wet there.  I guess they're pretty adaptable.  I have scrutator running around here also, I just let a couple go when I saw the larvae.  Those are cool but they are so common here.  I think the reason I like the pasimachus is because they can be really hard to find.  The scrutator had also been in that terr, but only a week so the larvae can't be scrutator ...could they?,  no, no way!  right?  Eggs must take a longer time to hatch than that.  I took a pic before I let them go but didn't post it because the light was kind of bad but here is it anyway.  Yeah those are pretty entertaining, a lot of action.


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## beetleman (Apr 15, 2012)

yeah i love the pasimachus,longlived.etc just awesome,the larva of the scrutator are more catapiller like,(ive kept them before,more chubby too)these larva proberly are pasimachus,being they were the only ones in there for that time.(i hopethough ive never seen their larva before,tried breeding my different sp.pasimachus but with no avail. maybe i wasn't patient enough,the scrutators rock too,always on the go. can't wait till those larva grow and see what happens  ,very courious.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 15, 2012)

I've seen a lot of scrutator larvae around here, some years they are esp. all over the place, saw a big one yesterday, something was wrong with it.  They come in waves, something like every 3 or 4 years(haven't really paid attention) in sync with years there are 1000's caterpillars all over everything.  They cover everything in webbing, it's pretty much a mess for a month or so.  Then the beetles are running around and the larvae make it in to the house.  I dropped a caterpillar in the larvae lion terr yesterday, man they ripped it apart. They flip each other around but I've never seen one eat another one.  I put the ones back in that I took out.  The ones that ate the caterpillar acted weird for a while, I thought they were dead, they wouldn't move, some upside down.  Some of those caterpillars have defensive chemicals and who knows what plants that one was eating that might have trippy chemicals in them.  Maybe they were tripping out haha.  They came out of it, no problems.  There are about 40 of them, I think.  They all pigged out and looks like every one of them went under to molt, I didn't see any walking around today but saw a fat one under a small rock.


Daahhhhhh, many have molted and they sure are looking like scrutator.  Of course I expect them to look similar so it may be hard to tell when so young.  But now I'm getting a bad feeling about it.


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## MrCrackerpants (Apr 16, 2012)

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.


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## zonbonzovi (Apr 17, 2012)

Well, if they turn out to be scrutator...just stick 'em in the mail, haha.


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## Galapoheros (Apr 18, 2012)

They ARE scrutator, unless the pachis look just like scrutator at a glance.  I know beetle people like scrutator but I'm disappointed that they aren't pachis.  Who is tator btw  ....anywhooooo, their metabolism is really high so that would explain seeing the babies in there only after a week or so after putting scrutator in there, I just wouldn't have believed it.  But maybe my memory is going, don't really know.  Here are couple now, compare with the first pic, really fast growers.


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## zonbonzovi (Apr 19, 2012)

See 2nd comment on this page(if you haven't seen it already): http://bugguide.net/node/view/57542/bgimage

Did you notice any development of the 'ridges' when you've had these?  The images I find associated with Calosoma show quite a variety in these and the way the segments are formed(but that could be a development stage thing).


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## Galapoheros (Apr 19, 2012)

The growth with these things is just unbelievable!









Ha, just kiddin, found it in my garage yesterday.  I stand by my comment that they are scrutator, "unless" the Pasimachus larvae look just like scrutator at a glance.  See that red at the very end of the larvae, that's a scrutator feature, but I don't know if it's common to any other ground beetle larvae around here.  The red is on these larvae also.  The problem is that I know what scrutator look like, but not Pasimachus and I don't believe they know for sure that the larvae at bugguide claiming it's a Pasimachus, is one.  This is why I'm disappointed, I want to know for sure what Pasimachus larvae look like. But like I said, unless Pasimachus look SO similar to scrutator, well there is a slight chance of a surprise but, I don't' think so.


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## Yoxigan (Apr 23, 2012)

Very interesting beetles. I used to have one, but it died.


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## Galapoheros (May 21, 2012)

Never would've guessed that they like bananas.


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## beetleman (May 22, 2012)

awesome! simply awesome...........i love these guys. man i would still love to see a pasimachus larvae.


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## Elytra and Antenna (May 27, 2012)

beetleman said:


> awesome! simply awesome...........i love these guys. man i would still love to see a pasimachus larvae.


I started reading the thread and was going to tell you they looked like Calosoma larvae I've reared before but then you had already figured it out.  However, I've NEVER seen a Pasimachus larva so I'll be looking to see what they turn into.


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