Long time no see, I've been busy! Glad to be back sharing about my favorite things in the world.... INSECTS!!! Enough chit chat let's get on to my new beetles!
Last week I received a pair of P. diabolicus from Peter of BugsInCyberspace.com. I've been wanting to get some ironclads that were easy for me to aquire food for, so these fit the bill since they eat rotten hardwood( instead of lichen like most ironclad beetles eat), which is easy for me to obtain, plus they look absolutely amazing with their cryptic, very rock-like appearance! I actually think these are probably the second best-looking ironclad beetles, only topped in appearance by the beautiful Zopherus nodulosus. I got some substrate advice from Hisserdude of the insect forums, and he recommended that I go with full on rotten wood for the substrate(since they eat rotten wood and lay their eggs in it) and inoculate it with shelf fungi like oyster mushrooms(since they have also been found eating shelf fungi in the wild.) With the addition of these guys, I ended up having to let go of my woodlouse hunter spider, so that I could use my female P.divisa's container for the ironclads, and rehouse the female P.divisa to my woodlouse hunter's old container. So I have the ironclads in my female P.divisa's old container, which is a plastic Sterilite container with a locking lid that has a couple ventilation holes. I also have some metal mesh hot glued over the ventilation holes, there is a piece of bark in the container for them to hide under, and a little bit of lichen for them to possibly eat.
Here's a couple pictures of this amazing species of ironclad beetle!
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| Female P.diabolicus |
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| Male P.diabolicus |
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| P.diabolicus pair |
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| P.diabolicus enclosure |
Until next time, goodbye!
Beautiful specimens man, I hope they do well for you! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks man! I hope they do too, I am pretty sure that they will do well, but I won't be satisfied unless they breed!
DeleteThis is a great tutorial on setting this species up for success. I look forward to updates and wish you much luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Peter! All the credit goes to Hisserdude on this one though, he provided me with detailed and very wise advice on the substrate for these guys!
DeleteJust witnessed a couple very brief connections!!!
ReplyDeleteTurns out the larger one is the male and the smaller is the female.
Now that I think of it, I recall noticing the larger one on top of the smaller one a couple times, so these guys may have already bred for me!
Or they are both males.....
DeleteWhen you saw the larger one on top, did you see genitalia come out?
Yes.
DeleteOK, interesting. Well hopefully they are indeed a male and female pair, would be very nice if they reproduced for you!! :)
DeleteNoticed the smaller one( the one I though was a female)with it's abdomen opened in the air with small genitalia coming out, so guess this means they're both males. ):
DeleteAh well, that sucks. :( Hopefully they'll at least live a long time.
DeleteYea, they're doing well, so looks like they'll live a good life. On the good side though Peter has these available again so I will probably pick up a couple along with the sexed pair of vinegaroons I'm purchasing from him. :)
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