# Breeding Lucanus cervus



## Insecto (Feb 17, 2007)

So guys i need you're help... I want breed _Lucanus cervus_ beetles in captivity and let them free becose in Lithuania this stag beetle is endengered specie. But there is one little problem: I know nothing about breeding a stag beetles :wall: , so maybe you guy's can tell me something about it or maybe some one all ready tried to breed them?

Thank you :worship:


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## Insecto (Feb 18, 2007)

Come on  some one help me!!!


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## Mat (Feb 18, 2007)

Insecto said:


> So guys i need you're help... I want breed _Lucanus cervus_ beetles in captivity and let them free becose in Lithuania this stag beetle is endengered specie. But there is one little problem: I know nothing about breeding a stag beetles :wall: , so maybe you guy's can tell me something about it or maybe some one all ready tried to breed them?
> 
> Thank you :worship:


Hi Insecto

I am involved with the conservation of _Lucanus cervus_ in the UK. 

Captive breeding is not easy and success rates are low at the moment.  The larvae take several years to develop underground feeding on white rot wood,  extimates vary from 3-5+ years.  Adult females do not seem to disperse actively and it seems they do not move far from their emergence sites.  The most difficult bit of captive rearing seems to be the adult post emergence phase.  

Larvae pupate in August / September and beetles emerge in a few weeks.  Adult beetles then remain in their pupal cells underground until May before emerging to mate.  It is this period where most captive losses seem to occur.  I think it is important that the beetles are kept cool and in an environment with high humidity.  I have some beetles which hatched last year which have so far made it through the winter, so I am hoping they will survive to mate and lay eggs in a few months.

There are a few practical problems you may come across if you try to do this.  _Lucanus cervus_ is a European Protected Species, which means in most European countries a licence is needed to capture / keep / handle this species, so you may well need to get one of these.  

I do not know if there is an 'official' Lithuanian project to help this species in Lithuania, you would be advised to find out and make contact with it - they may welcome an enthusiastic volunteer.  Release / reintroductions that nobody else knows about can also cause problems, if Stag Beetles are found by other people they may not know how they got there and these results may cause wrong conclusions to be made about the status and breeding success of the species in your country.

It is a good idea to try to help this species.  However, reintroductions / translocations need to be thought through very carefully and also monitored afterwards to see if they success or fail.  With _Lucanus cercus _this is a very long term project because of the length of the lifecycle.  Species conservation is sometimes a bit more complex thean just rearing up stuff and letting it go. 

I hope you do manage to get to help this species in your country, if there is nothing 'official' at the moment in your country perhaps you could be involved in starting something.  There is a lot of information about _Lucanus _ about.  Try contacting Dimitry Telnov at the Latvian Entomological Sociey, he is involved with beetle conservation in Latvia and may be able to give you more 'local' information and advice.

Regards

Matt



Insecto said:


> Come on  some one help me!!!


PS - This is a bulletin board, not MSN.  Sometimes it takes a day or so before you get replies to youre questions


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## Insecto (Feb 18, 2007)

Mat said:


> There are a few practical problems you may come across if you try to do this.  _Lucanus cervus_ is a European Protected Species, which means in most European countries a licence is needed to capture / keep / handle this species, so you may well need to get one of these.
> 
> I do not know if there is an 'official' Lithuanian project to help this species in Lithuania, you would be advised to find out and make contact with it - they may welcome an enthusiastic volunteer.  Release / reintroductions that nobody else knows about can also cause problems, if Stag Beetles are found by other people they may not know how they got there and these results may cause wrong conclusions to be made about the status and breeding success of the species in your country.



Well i dont think that there may be some problems with licence becose im working in Lithuania national park an entomologyst 
Dimitry Telnov gave me this idea, but he sad that he nows nothing about stag beetle breeding.
 In Lithuania there is a few projects to help endegered species, but there is no project for stag beetle. I think this will be the first  

Any way, Mat thanks for info...

P.S.

Maybe you have some imago or eggs to sell for project start?


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## Mat (Feb 18, 2007)

Insecto said:


> Well i dont think that there may be some problems with licence becose im working in Lithuania national park an entomologyst
> Dimitry Telnov gave me this idea, but he sad that he nows nothing about stag beetle breeding.
> In Lithuania there is a few projects to help endegered species, but there is no project for stag beetle. I think this will be the first
> 
> ...


Hi again

Glad to see you are already speaking to Dimitry and are doing it the 'officia'' way   .  

There are a couple of people who it might be worth talking to.  Deborah Harvey is here in the UK, she has just finished her Phd on _Lucanus cervus_.  She has done some rearing and has some interesting information on eggs, larvae and oviposition preferences in female beetles.  Paul Hendriks in Holland is also looking at Stag Beetle populations in his country.  An interesting website with some good links can be found at 
http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/lctable.html.

I will let you know if my adults survive an lay me some eggs.

Matt


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## loxoscelesfear (Feb 20, 2007)

*dynastes*

i may not be 100%   i have read lucanus breeding techniques are similar to dynastes techniques


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