Can Anyone ID this Beetle?

[Spepper]

Hey everyone. I've found these beetles quite a few times over the years, but never bothered to ID them, and now I'm curious. This one was found under a wood pile. He/she is about one inch long, and when annoyed will stick their rump in the air and release a very stinky liquid. I think it must be similar to millipede "poison", because once it got on my fingers and stained them pink. (Like millipedes have done to me in the past.)

If anyone knows what it is, that would be greatly appreciated, as I would like to care for it. Some questions pertaining to its care:

1.) Does it like moist/humid environments, or drier ones? Or does it really matter...? I was thinking it's probably a moist-environment insect.

2.) What size cage does it need?

3.) Is there a way to tell if it is male or female?

4.) What is its life cycle? I am guessing grub, pupa, adult...

5.) Last but definitely not least in importance: what does it eat?

Wow, that is a lot of questions. Well, even if you can't tell me all of the care questions, I would love to know what it is. I could probably do the research to find out the care stuff later, if I only knew what it was.

Okay, here's the picture, finally. It is crawling on a standard, square napkin in case you were wondering.



Thank you so much!

 

[Spepper]

Hmmm... after researching a bit I believe it's a type of darkling beetle.

 

[Biollantefan54]

I have these here! I believe they are a species of darkling beetle, they are pretty big. I found a pupa of one and it looks just like the small darkling beetles I have. I took a some big ones and threw them in with my small mealworm colony, so far so good lol.

 

[Tenodera]

Dry conditions, moister if you get larvae. They are active beetles, but a single one doesn't require a lot of space. Horizontal space is a lot more important than vertical. Sexing is easiest if you have one of each, since the easiest way to tell with most species is that the male is smaller and narrower. Also if they try and mate, well there you go! They have complete metamorphosis, so egg-larva (like a mealworm)-pupa-adult. Darkling beetles eat live and dead plants, seeds, fruit, dead insects, cereal, fish food... The larvae tend to like plants especially but eat the adults' food as well.

 

[MichelleLynn]

Our Zoo (Henry Doorly zoo), has some of those in with some death feigning beetles. They are labeled as some kind of darling beetle.

Lol I meant "Darkling" beetles, but darling is a good way to describe them too...

 

[Smokehound714]

Eleodes. Enormous Genus, with a bazillion sub-genera.


Hard to say what sub-genus, exactly. These are a major prey item for Aphonopelma, Anuroctonus, and Bothriocyrtum.

 

[Spepper]

Thanks lot guys!! That was most helpful... my only problem is that they really don't seem to have "jaws" of any kind, like most beetles. How do they eat? Their mouth is kind of just a flat, gold line across their face... if that made any sense at all. :?

---------- Post added 08-07-2013 at 08:14 AM ----------

Dry conditions, moister if you get larvae. They are active beetles, but a single one doesn't require a lot of space. Horizontal space is a lot more important than vertical. Sexing is easiest if you have one of each, since the easiest way to tell with most species is that the male is smaller and narrower. Also if they try and mate, well there you go! They have complete metamorphosis, so egg-larva (like a mealworm)-pupa-adult. Darkling beetles eat live and dead plants, seeds, fruit, dead insects, cereal, fish food... The larvae tend to like plants especially but eat the adults' food as well.

But I will definitely try these food items. We already have a mealworms colony, so I should be set there.

 

[Biollantefan54]

They have a very small mouth, I wanted to see the mouth too, I held it with my thumb and forefinger and put some paper up to its mouth, it is very small but I found its mouth, and it pinched that paper HARD. Don't want to get your fingers in there haha.

 

[Spepper]

So they do have a mouth after all... haha...

I found another one today!! We've been moving a wood pile and they like to hide in those, so now I have two. I think they're the same gender though, because they're just about exact duplicates of each other. Same length, width, all that. Except the one I caught yesterday has a bit darker black exoskeleton. I may post pictures later...

 

[Biollantefan54]

If one is darker that probably means it came out of its pupa later than the first lol. But yeah, they can bite you and if they do get a hold of you, it will give you a great pinch! I find them by wood piles all the time.

 

[Spepper]

Wow, they can bite you? I guess I'll be a little more careful from now on. LOL

I put them in a dry container with a substrate of wheat bran that we use to feed our mealworms. Already the one that I caught today was munching contentedly on the bran. I guess that'a a success! I also added a few fish food flakes and a couple of blades of green grass. Oh, and a wedge of potato. Do they need more moisture than the potato will offer?

One other thing... I am thinking these beetles must be one of the less-than-genius insects out there, because every time they encounter each other in the enclosure, one of them rubs their antenna all over the other one and (if it was anything but a bug) I'd think he was sniffing the other one. And it has climbed onto the other one's back a couple times and appeared to be about to mate, but never did. As if it realized before it was too late that they were the same gender. Kinda wacky if you ask me. Is this normal behavior for them?

 

[Biollantefan54]

Maybe there just slightly stupid? lol. But I had a regular sized mealworm bite me one time, I was shocked they could, They have to bite you on a really soft part of you face to get a grip, it was right on cheek haha. You don't have to be super careful with them though, just pin the down and pick them up in the center, they cant bend there head down and aren't aggressive so they wont try to bite you haha.

 

[Spepper]

LOL Okay. When I was pretty little a mealworm bit me on the hand. No one believed me. But they haven't bitten me since, so I guess I'm out of the danger zone as far as hand size compared to insect jaws. xD I am enjoying my little brainless beetles though. It was pretty funny. I put a piece of bark in their enclosure for them to hide under, and my newest beetle found it and hid pretty quickly, but the second one just crawled around on top all over and could not figure out how to get inside!! And the one that was already inside mounded up some wheat bran right at the entrance (I don't know if it was intentional or not), but it made it look like there was no way in. I think my newer beetle is smarter than the first one. The first one also happens to b the one to crawl on top and look like he's going to mate. It's pretty interesting how they seem to have different intelligence levels.

 

[Smokehound714]

I stopped using superworms as bait because they kept biting me. Those suckers have one powerful nip!

 

[Spepper]

I got bit by a regular mealworm, but I would expect that the bigger the mealworm the easier it is to accidentally get nipped.