# Decomposition



## Dark Raptor (Mar 17, 2006)

One of my _Blaberus_ males has died. I wanted to test 'cleaning' abilities of my _Zophobas morio_ colony. Time ~1 hour...

They spoted food just few seconds after I left it in their tank.




































Larvae started to feed 20-30 minutes after beetles.
























They left only wings and pronotum... yup, they are good cleaners  






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## rm90 (Mar 17, 2006)

Oh my gosh, those pictures are so amazing! I guess its better to create a chain rather then wasting a corpse. Right? May I ask what were those worms under it? Did they come from under the bark? (Sorry, new to bugs!)


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## Scorpiove (Mar 18, 2006)

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen, makes me want to get a colony like this.  Easy disposing of dead things.....


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## emmille (Mar 18, 2006)

*cool*

i loved the pics, i love the worms, i love the bugs!!!!  

hey, aren't Zophobas morio, king mealworms? :?  i'm not that good in scientific names. i didn't know they do eat dead stuffs. i only feed mine with oats. very cool man!!! what substrate are you using for Zophobas morio? i got only two bugs, 1 about to turn into pupa and a lot of worms.

love them!!!!! :clap:


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## Scythemantis (Mar 18, 2006)

Ryan Maguire said:
			
		

> Oh my gosh, those pictures are so amazing! I guess its better to create a chain rather then wasting a corpse. Right? May I ask what were those worms under it? Did they come from under the bark? (Sorry, new to bugs!)


The worms are obviously the larva (babies) of the beetles


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## Dark Raptor (Mar 18, 2006)

Thanks 

Yes, I give them all corpses I find and other organic 'stuff'. They eat everything, even mould (which is natural for most darkling beetles).
For _Z. morio_ I use rottened wood (mostly Oak and Beech). I also add fungi like _Ganoderma_, _Fistulina_ ect.

And if you never seen that. Here are special glands that are used by adult beetles to create this specific odour  






And this is the way how you can sex them. Males have this incision on their clypeus (and females not):






Copulation  






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## siliconthoughts (Mar 19, 2006)

*Great photos!*

Those are some great macro shots.   Really excellent.  

I had to go look up clypeus to know what part you were referring to.    
Can you post a shot of a female to compare?  I let my colony lapse when the roaches got going, so I'm currently out of beetles.

Colin


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## morda (Mar 19, 2006)

Like always awsome pics! 
After what time they reach maturity? And what's the temperature in their container?


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## Dark Raptor (Mar 19, 2006)

siliconthoughts said:
			
		

> I had to go look up clypeus to know what part you were referring to. Can you post a shot of a female to compare?


Here you'll find whole insect anatomy:
http://www.lander.edu/rsfox/310romaleaLab.html
Clypeus covers mouth parts from above.

Here is my older pic:





Female is on the right, with "full" clypeus.



			
				morda said:
			
		

> After what time they reach maturity? And what's the temperature in their container?


Thanks  4 - 5 months. I keep them in 25 degrees C.


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## jwasted (Mar 20, 2006)

WOW, those are some really kewl picturs! Thats a healthy colony you have there


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## ilovebugs (Mar 31, 2006)

wow. those are so much fun.

I have a great colony of the regular meal worms that I've had for 4 generations (a very nice $3 investment) they can really put it away.
I love to throw a bannana peel in (or even the stem part on the top) and see how much they eat by morning. they will eat all but the yellow and stringy parts, it's really cool. 

I recently purchased a cup of the giant meal worms or whatever (probably the same as you have there) I've only had them a couple weeks, but alot of them have died. I thought maybe a new surroundings would help, so I put them in with my other colony, hopefully they will get along...


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