Breeding
report for Chalcosoma caucasus (Cameron Highlands, Malaysia)
Chalcosoma
caucasus, male 10,8 cm, wild caught in Cameron Highly., Malaysia
This
report is based on my experiences according Chalcosoma caucasus in my own breed.
I made some mistakes that would have been easy to avoid and that made breeding
this species more difficult than it is… I am going to refer to it later on.
To begin:
I started breeding Chalcosoma caucasus on 12.06.99. My stock was wild caught and
I had one male and 3 females (1,3). I had prepared a box for them, the sizes of
which were 40x 40 x 80 cm (length x width x
height). It was filled at a level of 40 cm. The substrate I used was white
rotten wood (mainly oak (Quercus ssp) and Beech (Fagus ssp. ?)), rotten leaves
and normal potting ground in a mixture of 2: 2: 1. Before using it I put it in my oven and heated it up
at about 180 degree Celsius for about 30 minutes in order to kill mites and
other nuisances. (Now I know that the method of
disinfecting the substrate usually leads to an overwhelming mass of mites…).
The substrate was kept slightly wet and pressed
very much in the bottom of the container (Thick, pressed substrate somehow leads
to a greater number of eggs).
C. caucasus, F1 male,
shrunken horn due to bad feeding in the middle of
L3
C. caucaus, F1 female, bigger than wild caught ones
BUT:
When the first larvae are pupating, there are still some that want to be
fed and any disturbance, for instance changing the substrate is to avoid, as it
easily kills the pupae. Another problem is that in Chalcosoma caucasus, the
males need a much longer time until they pupate, so it is highly recommended to
separate males from females and keep the males warmer/ females cooler, in order
to fasten/ slow down their development to have females and males at the same
time. It is very depressing to see your females die old and a week later the
males are hatching… This was my first problem. Another point in keeping them
together is that the larvae disturb those that are pupating and a Chalcosoma
larvae that is disturbed, is not likely to build up an other cocoon => the
loss of larvae. Out of ten larvae that were kept together, I only managed to get
out one male and two females. (The others died during their pupation). In
addition to the problem of disturbing in pupation, there is the fact that the
cocoon of this species is very delicate and not as hard as those of Cetonids…
I think
it is easy to breed Chalcosoma when taking attention to these facts. It is
possible to keep the larvae in two litre boxes until they are in the middle of
the third stage, then 5 litre boxes should do it. You just have to check often
the substrate, as these larvae devour giant masses of wood…
The
females hatched on the 12 and 14.11.00 (Duration of development from egg to
imago 500 and 502 days), the male
on the 27.03.01 (egg to imago 639 days). The male still is alive and is mating
right now with the females of the breed of a friend of mine, as my females have
already died, when the male hatched out.
I hope
this report helps breeding these species without making the mistakes I made.
When paying attention to this report and avoiding mistakes, I think this species
is easy to keep and breed and makes a good pet as it is pretty nice.
Copyright © B.Harink
Stand:
06. November 2007.