Salmonsaladsandwich Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Tiger beetles are great. (I'm pretty sure i've seen the C. Sexguttata and C. Duodecimguttata ovipositing!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Beautiful! Hope they do well for you! Very nice camera quality BTW! P.S: The beetle on the first video at 0:23 seems to be an Amara sp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Thanks! Are you sure about the beetle being an Amara species? It's the same one that gets his drumstick stolen at 5:10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Hmm.. maybe a Poecilus sp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 That's what I put in the description. poecilus chalcites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Oops, sorry! I should pay more attention to the video descriptions, lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcbpolish Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 They don't cannibalize each other? Nice videos, by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 No, they don't. Although at one point in the video it looks like one is trying to eat the other, they're actually fighting over a piece of food. In the wild you can sometimes see large numbers of tiger beetles in close proximity. Even solitary species that don't swarm can be seen together in the best egg laying sites or in sun flecks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Scratch that. I didn't feed them yesterday and there was a bit of a bloodthirsty riot going on this morning until I gave them food. But I've had them for a week and this is the first incident, so I guess ya' just have to keep them fed at all times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 That's the problem with many carabids, if you forget a feeding they will murder each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RomanBuck Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 Well... I should probably go feed mine then lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 The adults are starting to die off, but at the same time I'm starting to see little round larval burrows in the sand! They're much bigger than I expected for hatchlings, but then again they do need to reach full size in only 2 molts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Awesome! Hope you can rear them to adulthood! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted June 14, 2015 Author Share Posted June 14, 2015 Yeah. For a second I panicked and thought "oh my god where am I going to get all this tiny live food?!?" And then I realized that they can eat ants. All I have to do is leave an apple core on the ground (sorry, roaches! I swear you'll get the next one!) and shake it over the cage. Heck, all I have to do is leave an apple core in their cage and it would attract all the ants they could ever eat... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted June 14, 2015 Author Share Posted June 14, 2015 Hmm... I guess the larvae don't really like pavement ants, probably because they're shells are tough and they don't die easily. Sometimes they flick the ants away, other times they drag them down only to throw them out a few seconds later. I can't tell whether they eat them at all, in any case tetramorium is clearly a bad food. Other ant species just run up the glass and out of the terrarium immediately so there isn't much opportunity for them to get eaten. I tried dead mosquitoes but half the time they mistake them for debri and flick them away. I'm not sure what to feed them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Try wingless fruit flies or the "giant" springtails. I'm sure they would eat the springtails, but the fruit flies might climb out of their reach... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted June 14, 2015 Author Share Posted June 14, 2015 Yeah, fruit flies wouldn't be any better than the ants that climb glass. I tried feeding them those yellow Lasius spp. That you find under stones in the woods and they worked great, (can't climb, soft and palatable) but they're not as numerous or as easy to collect as pavement and 'climbing' ants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Well, springtails would be my best answer, they are usually sold in the hundreds for low prices and you can set some aside for starting your own colony. You could always just find a rock in a semi-moist area and shake it against a jar and you should have a bunch in there, though some species may be too small to feed your larva. Also maybe those dwarf isopods, Thrichorhina tomentosa would work, they are pretty productive, or tiny baby roaches? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted June 14, 2015 Author Share Posted June 14, 2015 I might be able to collect a lot of Lasius neoniger for them in a soccer field down the street. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcbpolish Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 I'm pretty sure I saw two bright metallic green tiger beetles last week... thanks to this post and your youtube videos, I actually knew what they were! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 Six spots, I presume? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcbpolish Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Ok... when I said I knew what they were, I meant that I know they were tiger beetles... :-) Plus, one of them I saw when I was out on a run without my glasses on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 Eh, they were probably six spots. I think they're the only common green species in Minnesota. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonsaladsandwich Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 Here's a picture of some of my larvae's little burrows: http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/salmonsaladsandwic/media/image.jpg1_zpsqfcsj5ey.jpg.html You can't see their heads here, but interestingly when they are visible they're a shiny greenish bronze color not unlike the undersides of the adults. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Awesome! I love the look of tiger beetle larva, very unusual! I hope I can find some this summer, I have yet to see a live tiger beetle in person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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