Pachnoda (Sun Beetles)

As the title suggests, has anyone ever bred Pachnoda beetles as feeders (using the larvae I assume since the shell of adults would be too much). I'm just curious as these are actually quite an attractive species to keep and I've noticed that many of the animals I used to work with were fed a grub of similar size.

If so any ideas what the care for them is like? - I assume just humid, hot with some rotten bark / fruit for them to feed on and enough substrate to bury themselves in?

Thanks,

George

P.S: picture of the adults -


and the larvae -

Wow...great looking beetle. As long as these are used as feeders for other animals scorpions should have no problem eating the larvae or beetle.

I wouldn't feed them the beetle though.

40 grubs arriving on Friday so we'll soon see

@Bayss Yeah I agree they're quite nice to look at, and non of the fruit beetle species appear to release any toxins that i can find at least, and I know for sure these ones are okay.

@Patcho I'll just be feeding the larvae to them, can feed them up on fruit and provide some nice levels of nutrients for the scorps as well as maintaining a steady amount of food, provided it works of course.

Planning on letting the first generation through to adulthood and then working from there, skimming some grubs off the occasional generation, using 2 large bins for them for now and will probably move on to a large plastic storage container when I end up with too many, we'll see.

Please, please keep us updated!

I shall do my best to!

hopefully this'll work out quite well, when I bred them for my college they were very easy to keep and they breed constantly, so we'll just have to see how this batch goes. Also it's something that's actually going to be delivered since I'm stuck here going stir crazy at knowing I have paid for 5 Scorpions and I won't see them posted for another 10-15+ days lol.

Who knows I may have a well established Pachnoda colony by the time they arrive

They will hold you over until the scorpions arrive hopefully. The temps can cause delays where I'm at also. If the dealer is willing to ship them in a small styrofoam box with a heat pack/hand warmer that can get them safe to you if temps are above 30F. Also helps if they can get shipped to you in 1 to 2 days. The faster the mail the better. I look forward to seeing the collection whenever it arrives!

I've requested heat packs with all of them and will continue to do so, I think all of my deliveries are on "next day" service, so they all should only be in transit for roughly 24 hours. Sadly at the moment the temperature is below freezing all the time, though we have highs of 4-6 degrees the lows and night temperatures are still around -1 to -5 which shows little sign of improvement. I think my sellers will only ship / post when the weather is a minimum of 3-5 degrees centigrade, I guess this long wait shall only make me appreciate them more . And thank you Bayss il be sure to post plenty of pics when they arrive (fingers crossed in tact)

Just an update; 10 specimens arrived (in grub form):

Here's how they look:


they were quick to escape the light and buried away rather fast!

here's them in the breeding bin (will upsize when there's more of them):



I've mixed in some rotten wood as well as coco fiber and compost with a good spray to keep things nice and damp for them, shall have to research how long it is before metamorphosis takes place.