Darkling beetle picture thread

[pannaking22]

Glad to see this thread still going! Might try to rear some of the tenebs in my area this summer if I get out and collect a bunch of species. If I get out enough I'll try to collect extras to ship off to you all too

 

[Hisserdude]

Cool, I wish you luck finding some cool stuff this summer! What kind of Tenebs do you usually see in your area?

 

[pannaking22]

I haven't really sat down to ID any unfortunately, so I can't tell you much about the local diversity. From what I can find on Bug Guide though, I can say with some certainty that I've found: Bolitotherus cornutus, Neomida bicornis, Platydema sp., Alaetrinus minimus, Neatus sp., Diaperis maculata, Alobates pennsylvanica, and Meracantha contracta. Wow, I guess I've seen more than I thought lol.

 

[Hisserdude]

I haven't really sat down to ID any unfortunately, so I can't tell you much about the local diversity. From what I can find on Bug Guide though, I can say with some certainty that I've found: Bolitotherus cornutus, Neomida bicornis, Platydema sp., Alaetrinus minimus, Neatus sp., Diaperis maculata, Alobates pennsylvanica, and Meracantha contracta. Wow, I guess I've seen more than I thought lol.

Nice, I really love Alobates, so unusual for a darkling beetle to be carnivorous! And Meracantha contracta are very cool too, from what I've heard they are tricky to breed though. I hope you can find some this year, not enough people are keeping darkling beetles!

 

[pannaking22]

Nice, I really love Alobates, so unusual for a darkling beetle to be carnivorous! And Meracantha contracta are very cool too, from what I've heard they are tricky to breed though. I hope you can find some this year, not enough people are keeping darkling beetles!

I haven't ever kept them seriously since I have enough other inverts lol, but I might take a stab at a couple of the local species and see what happens. If nothing else I can keep another small communal enclosure like what I have now with my desert species. Planning on cleaning off a couple shelves this spring when I have the time to put together a nice FS list and go from there Used to have some huge Eleodes from Colorado, but I sold the lot of them a while back. I think I posted them up on Beetle Forum at some point to confirm ID's.

 

[pannaking22]

Huh, maybe I didn't post the pics for ID...weird. I know I still have them somewhere though, so I'll see if I can find them again.

 

[Hisserdude]

Well once you have some room you should definitely consider keeping some of your local darklings, I'm envious of some of the species you have around you.

Yeah, we got some huge Eleodes obscurus here, I may try to catch some again this year, I never was successful in rearing any to adulthood, now I want to try again.

If you still got those pics I'd be happy to try and ID them for you, even though the beetles themselves are no longer in your possession.

 

[pannaking22]

I'd be more than happy to send some out your way once I get a decent number

I believe E. obscurus was what I had the most of, but there were a couple other species mixed in too. And thanks, I appreciate it!

 

[Hisserdude]

I'd be more than happy to send some out your way once I get a decent number

I believe E. obscurus was what I had the most of, but there were a couple other species mixed in too. And thanks, I appreciate it!

Hah thanks, hopefully I'll still have room by then, I have been aquring lots of inverts lately lol!

E.obscurus are really cool, and the females can be so heavy! Like I said, if you ever dig up pics of the ones you can't identify I'd be happy to give it a try, identifying darklings is one of my favorite pastimes.

 

[pannaking22]

Hah thanks, hopefully I'll still have room by then, I have been aquring lots of inverts lately lol!

E.obscurus are really cool, and the females can be so heavy! Like I said, if you ever dig up pics of the ones you can't identify I'd be happy to give it a try, identifying darklings is one of my favorite pastimes.

I've finally managed to slow myself down lol and the stuff I sell will help slim things down a bit. Anything I collect in the summer will hopefully get me a few extra bucks as well so I have a little more money rolling in. Seems like interest in native inverts has really been increasing, so hopefully I can help out the hobby a bit by dispersing some of the oddities I come across Both live and dead of course because I love trading dead insects.

 

[pannaking22]

And fingers crossed that I can find those pictures again tonight lol.

 

[Hisserdude]

I've finally managed to slow myself down lol and the stuff I sell will help slim things down a bit. Anything I collect in the summer will hopefully get me a few extra bucks as well so I have a little more money rolling in. Seems like interest in native inverts has really been increasing, so hopefully I can help out the hobby a bit by dispersing some of the oddities I come across Both live and dead of course because I love trading dead insects.

Cool, oddities are my favorites! Hopefully this summer will hold lots of successful bug hunts for all of us!

 

[Hisserdude]

Embaphion muricatum larva:

Just got these yesterday, thanks again @Mastigoproctus! Can't wait until these mature, they are one of the most interesting darkling beetles out there!

 

[Tenevanica]

I'm almost done with my Teneb photo shoot! The pictures aren't as good as I hoped they'd be, but they're better than my phone camera! I'll upload everything tonight.

 

[Hisserdude]

I'm almost done with my Teneb photo shoot! The pictures aren't as good as I hoped they'd be, but they're better than my phone camera! I'll upload everything tonight.

Ooooh, I look forward to seeing them!

 

[Tenevanica]

And now, for my long awaited picture post...
These pictures aren't as good as I wanted them to be, but it's what I've got.
Asbolus verrucosus

Eleodes saturalis (Best picture I could get!)

Unknown darkling (Hisserdude?)

Cryptoglossa variolosa

Asbolus laevis

Zopherus haldemani

Stenomorpha confluens (I couldn't get any pictures of my live specimen, but here is the pinned DOA I received when I ordered the other one.)


Again, these aren't the best pictures considering my new camera, but I figure they're tolerable. Enjoy!

 

[Hisserdude]

Nice, cool pics! Oh, and that unidentifed darkling is an Eleodes armatus.

 

[Jacob Ma]

This thread is really cool! I have some temperate forest species of Tenebroids in my "compost bin" that eat the decaying wood and plant matter, but they are very hard to find in there. How do most of you get your species? I see some of them at bugsincyberspace, but do any of you guys wild-collect them?

 

[Hisserdude]

This thread is really cool! I have some temperate forest species of Tenebroids in my "compost bin" that eat the decaying wood and plant matter, but they are very hard to find in there. How do most of you get your species? I see some of them at bugsincyberspace, but do any of you guys wild-collect them?

Almost all the species I have kept I have caught myself, Idaho has a really great diversity of Tenebrionids! The only ones I have bought are my Tenebrio molitor, Zophobas morio, Embaphion muricatum, Coelus ciliatus and an Eleodes species.

What forest species are you talking about?

 

[pannaking22]

@Tenevanica how do A. laevis compare to A. verrucosus? I've thought about picking up a few at some point but was on the fence because they really are just smooth A. verrucosus. And super jealous of your Z. haldemani! Absolutely gorgeous beetle.