Children of the Substrate

Hello and welcome. 🙂

Don't you just love firsts? Especially when they're the good kind? In today's post, we'll be discussing just that very topic as it relates to my time working with the delightful family of Scarab Beetles.

Remember that post a couple months ago on my group of Harlequin Beetles? I was just starting out then and only had my originals. I honestly thought that was still the case upon opening up their enclosure to do my weekly removal of old food a few days ago.....but I was wrong. I instantly noticed that about 95% of the food was gone. I had offered the same amount just the week before and only a third had been eaten, so things weren't matching up. Curiously, I scraped away at the layer of substrate beneath where the remaining morsels sat and didn't believe my eyes at what I found......larvae!!! 😆 More little, jello-bellied beings showed themselves with each scoop of substrate I unearthed. In all, I counted approximately 25 first instar individuals of different sizes (due to food intake). I also dug up bunches of eggs during the excavation. I'm still shocked that I didn't really even observe a single one in the whole period that the now-hatched larvae were developing inside of theirs. 😅 Enough talk, here's some of the most recent reasons why arthropod breeding is worth it for me. ⬇️

Look at these sculpted bodies (even the one inside the egg LOL). 😛

Egg

Small 1st instar larva

Large 1st instar larva

Large and small 1st instar larvae

1st instar larvae

While on the topic of the larvae, let's speak a little on what made them possible - the adults! Since I posted last, a number have matured; 5 to be exact. One individual died shortly after maturing unfortunately, so I actually only have 4 inhabiting the enclosure right now. Besides them, I'm still waiting on three lil gems to emerge from their pupal chambers.

On a bit of a different note about the adults, I remember stating in the last post about the species that they could change from green to yellow in a matter of minutes based on humidity. I felt bad mentioning that very neat detail without having any photographic example to go along with it at the time. Well, now that I have multiple adults, that very shot is possible. ⬇️

My kind of contrast. 💚💛

Green adult and yellow adult

These photos remind me, I've got to go add more dead leaves to the substrate for all these hungry larvae. lol Pardon me while I do that and I'll meet you right where I always do - next post. 🙂