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Identification requested


Bricktop

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While at Wekiva Springs national park in central Florida i spotted a few interesting species. I thought i was looking at a gigantic ant in the sand, it was frantically moving around, attempting to burrow like a Cicada killer wasp, but would stop and keep moving around. A closer look and my best guess is it was a cow killer/velvet ant.. but i'm not sure, i've never seen these up close in the flesh. I just want to confirm my guess on this insect- Is this a cow killer? I was only able to take the picture below as the damned thing was too frantic to get a clear shot.

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And here's one of the lubber's i was talking about earlier in another thread- i took one decent picture, i'm sure his guess was correct but maybe not. here goes:

DSCF0356.jpg

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Dasymutilla - 'velvet ant' or 'cow killer'

Romalea microptera - it wasn't a guess, there's only one species of lubber in Florida.

the pictures of velvet ants i've seen in most insect guides and such usually show them as being fuzzy like bees, these were not, despite having the same coloration etc.. or is it just a specific group of velvet ants that are fuzzy?

Thanks for the confirmation

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I had a pet D. magnifica last summer. I'm not sure when it was collected as I received it from a photographer that had purchased it from another source. I kept if for about 3 months. I fed it a mixture of maple syrup and water and sometimes put a little bit of fruit in.

I get emails every once in awhile from concerned parents who see them in their yard. Supposedly they have a tremendously painful sting and are common in some areas of the country. I believe late spring is when I receive the most inquiries about them.

Gorgeous animals. I'd love to see some Thistledown velvet ants. Check out this photo on another site:

Myrmecos Photo of Thistledown Velvet Ant

Peter

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Well since i've already started it, can anyone identify this beetle species? I've had them for ages and i know they're tenebrio (obviously) but that's about it. They actually had a large batch of mealworms but none of these survived to pupaes.. i'm sure i screwed up raising them, but i didn't do anything different from my regular mealworms, and i always imagined these to be the easiest species to care for.

DSCF0392.jpg

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Well since i've already started it, can anyone identify this beetle species? I've had them for ages and i know they're tenebrio (obviously) but that's about it. They actually had a large batch of mealworms but none of these survived to pupaes.. i'm sure i screwed up raising them, but i didn't do anything different from my regular mealworms, and i always imagined these to be the easiest species to care for.

Werer thier 'mealworms' isolated to pupate and then died, or did they die in the enclosure ??

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Werer thier 'mealworms' isolated to pupate and then died, or did they die in the enclosure ??

None of them reached the pupae stage, after noticing how a number were dying i experimented, leaving a bunch in a separate enclosure. at first this seemed to work but these died too.

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None of them reached the pupae stage, after noticing how a number were dying i experimented, leaving a bunch in a separate enclosure. at first this seemed to work but these died too.

I would be interested to know what happened too. It's a cool beetle. I have the petshop "superworm" beetle going just for giggles. Anything that can be similarly cultured I would like to have a go at.

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I would be interested to know what happened too. It's a cool beetle. I have the petshop "superworm" beetle going just for giggles. Anything that can be similarly cultured I would like to have a go at.

I got a bunch of similar type to this from orin way back, they never even bred but they were much larger and lived i'd say 2 and a half to three years ! I'd give a go at any tenebrio beetle.

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None of them reached the pupae stage, after noticing how a number were dying i experimented, leaving a bunch in a separate enclosure. at first this seemed to work but these died too.

Most tenebrio can't be treated like normal mealworms. The larvae and pupae cannot survive extreme dryness and they must be reared on damp substrate.

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Most tenebrio can't be treated like normal mealworms. The larvae and pupae cannot survive extreme dryness and they must be reared on damp substrate.

I imagined such.. i sprayed down the tank constantly to make sure they were getting enough moisture, i guess it was insufficient regardless..

I'm not sure where i got these from, i think Roachman Willis gave them to me or gave them to us (myself and a colleague) in 2005.

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