The largest beetle i have ever kept - Megasoma actaeon

ItalianTermiteMan

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 23, 2023
Messages
146
Today i'll share with you some very old (and bad) pics of a male Megasoma actaeon (a magnificent south american rhino beetle) i kept some years ago. I had bought him along with a female as a relatively young larvae, the female died whitin a few days (maybe she didn't took well the shipping) and the male took around two years to become adult. Sadly with no female to attempt breeding, he just kinda sat in his enclosure for one month and an half before i gifted him to a local (and trusted) butterfly house to at least be seen by people for the last half of its life... yep, that's the main problem with these beetles: around three years from egg to adult and just three-three and an half months of adult life!
Anyway here's the pics:


1 (1).jpg
The critter during his pupal stage. Sadly i don't have (or simply could not find) pics of him as a larvae, so we'll start from
here. I've always been fascinated by beetle pupae, and this was a chonk of a pupa!


1 (2).jpg
An even more horrible pic of him just eclosed into an adult inside a substitute
pupal cell made from green foam. The white elytra they have in this stage
are beautiful.


111.jpg
And finally, tha adult in all its glory... and keep in mind they can of course get bigger than this! Reaaly too bad for their short adult lifespan though...
 
Last edited:

Ratmosphere

Arachnoking
Active Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
2,343
Unfortunate that the female died. Male looks GREAT!

Do you remember how much substrate you used over the 2 years? :lol:
 

SpookySpooder

"embiggened"
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Joined
Jun 21, 2023
Messages
1,086
Wow! How was keeping these for you? Was it difficult in any way?

I had the chance to purchase a few of these larvae a couple years ago but the price scared me and so I did not get them because I have no experience with beetles other than random larvae and pupae I dig up.
 

ItalianTermiteMan

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 23, 2023
Messages
146
Wow! How was keeping these for you? Was it difficult in any way?

I had the chance to purchase a few of these larvae a couple years ago but the price scared me and so I did not get them because I have no experience with beetles other than random larvae and pupae I dig up.
No, i didn't had any particular difficulties, but my experience with this species is just that one male.
 

Ultum4Spiderz

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 13, 2011
Messages
6,014
Today i'll share with you some very old (and bad) pics of a male Megasoma actaeon (a magnificent south american rhino beetle) i kept some years ago. I had bought him along with a female as a relatively young larvae, the female died whitin a few days (maybe she didn't took well the shipping) and the male took around two years to become adult. Sadly with no female to attempt breeding, he just kinda sat in his enclosure for one month and an half before i gifted him to a local (and trusted) butterfly house to at least be seen by people for the last half of its life... yep, that's the main problem with these beetles: around three years from egg to adult and just three-three and an half months of adult life!
Anyway here's the pics:


View attachment 458499
The critter during his pupal stage. Sadly i don't have (or simply could not find) pics of him as a larvae, so we'll start from
here. I've always been fascinated by beetle pupae, and this was a chonk of a pupa!


View attachment 458494
An even more horrible pic of him just eclosed into an adult inside a substitute
pupal cell made from green foam. The white elytra they have in this stage
are beautiful.


View attachment 458496
And finally, tha adult in all its glory... and keep in mind they can of course get bigger than this! Reaaly too bad for their short adult lifespan though...
amazing!! Sucks you couldn’t breed because the doa. Why do they live so short as adults, is it lacking ability to eat ?
 

Arachnophobphile

Arachnoangel
Joined
Dec 24, 2018
Messages
911
Today i'll share with you some very old (and bad) pics of a male Megasoma actaeon (a magnificent south american rhino beetle) i kept some years ago. I had bought him along with a female as a relatively young larvae, the female died whitin a few days (maybe she didn't took well the shipping) and the male took around two years to become adult. Sadly with no female to attempt breeding, he just kinda sat in his enclosure for one month and an half before i gifted him to a local (and trusted) butterfly house to at least be seen by people for the last half of its life... yep, that's the main problem with these beetles: around three years from egg to adult and just three-three and an half months of adult life!
Anyway here's the pics:


View attachment 458499
The critter during his pupal stage. Sadly i don't have (or simply could not find) pics of him as a larvae, so we'll start from
here. I've always been fascinated by beetle pupae, and this was a chonk of a pupa!


View attachment 458494
An even more horrible pic of him just eclosed into an adult inside a substitute
pupal cell made from green foam. The white elytra they have in this stage
are beautiful.


View attachment 458496
And finally, tha adult in all its glory... and keep in mind they can of course get bigger than this! Reaaly too bad for their short adult lifespan though...
So sorry you lost your female. Your male looks awesome.

Sometime ago I was looking to get some beetle larvae of the Dynastes genus.

Considering larvae and pupae stage can last a couple of years altogether and adults last around 3 to 6 months it was kind of depressing.

The adult stage pays off though as they are stunning. Maybe sometime in the future I might get some larvae.
 
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