Wild Darkling Beetle Egg-Laying?

[Spepper]

Okay so I have three of these I caught under a wood pile when relocating the wood and I know I have at least one male and one female in the bunch because I've seen two of them mating on several occasions. My question is, what do they lay their eggs on, and how hard would it be to get them to hatch? Sorry the picture isn't great but it will have to do, at least until morning. It's about 1 1/2 inches long give or take a little. It seems to love to climb, even though the blackberry sprig isn't for it. LOL


http://www.flickr.com/photos/114543195@N07/13301270345/http://www.flickr.com/people/114543195@N07/

 

[kellakk]

They lay their eggs in the soil. It's very difficult to see them, since they're tiny and soil sticks to them once they're laid. To get them to hatch is pretty simple, you just need to give them the right conditions. Not sure about your species, but the ones I find here really only need semi-moist soil; enough moisture so that the eggs don't dry out, but not wet by any means. Peat moss or coconut fibre work well.

Oh and you probably need a mating pair. That's sort of important too.

 

[Spepper]

Thanks for the info! Haha... yeah... a mating pair is kind of important. I have that though. I'll have to set up a small container with moist dirt in it then and put the the one I think is female in with one of the two males for a while. Do their larvae look like mealworms? What do the larvae eat?

 

[Tongue Flicker]

mealworm beetles! so far none of the beetles that free roam some of my pet tanks have laid eggs. If they did, it doesn't seem to survive long lol.. good luck!

 

[kellakk]

I probably should have explained a little better. This is the setup for my Eleodes osculans: Half peat half sandy clay (collected from near my house). I made the substrate moist initially, and let it dry out enough for the top half to be really dry before adding a little water in the corner. These beetles are desert beetles, so they need very little moisture. Just not bone dry. Think mealworms but slightly more humid. The adullts can stay with the larvae.

Oh, and darkling beetle larvae all look pretty much alike. There are some differences, like cerci and hairs near their bottom end, but pretty similar. Size is also pretty similar, superworms tend to be larger than Eleodes larvae.

 

[Spepper]

Thanks! I'll have to try this and see if I can get some baby beetles!

 

[Smokehound714]

BTW, OP, your beetle is actually likely Coelocnemis californica, and not an eleodes. crazy how similar the look, eh?

 

[kellakk]

I don't know if Smokehound got the species correct, but the genus seems right. In that case, you can disregard my "desert" setup and do a forest floor type substrate with relatively high humidity. I probably should have just recommended that you mimic the conditions you found them in. That's what I usually do. And larvae are easily fed with leaf litter and rotting hardwood chunks in the substrate, similar to millipedes.

 

[Smokehound714]

I don't know if Smokehound got the species correct, but the genus seems right. In that case, you can disregard my "desert" setup and do a forest floor type substrate with relatively high humidity. I probably should have just recommended that you mimic the conditions you found them in. That's what I usually do. And larvae are easily fed with leaf litter and rotting hardwood chunks in the substrate, similar to millipedes.

You're correct. i did, indeed, get the species incorrect. this actually appears to be Coelocnemis magna, which has granulose elytra, rather than smooth. Common in norcal's higher elevations.