Larvae 3, L2
This
report about my experiences with difficulties in breeding Goliathus ssp. is
based on experiences I had with larvae in the second stage and those of friends
with imagos, eggs and larvae in the first stage. I never read an article about
a continuously breeding of Goliathus ssp. Of course there are some people saying
they succeeded in breeding but they don’t have striking proofs. Here are my
experiences with Goliathus goliatus goliathus.
I had
bought 5 larvae in the second stage at the International insect fair in
Frankfurt 99. When I bought them (11/07/99), their weight was between 11 and 19
grams.
Larvae
1: 11,5 g
Larvae
2: 12 g, a wound behind it’s had.
Larvae
3: 17 g, the most active one, fast
moving
Larvae
4: 13g
Larvae
5: 19g, the fattest one
I kept
the larvae separated in one litre boxes. The average temperature was about 22°
Celsius. Their substrate contained soft white rotten oak wood and rotten leaves
in a relation of 3: 1. I
ascertained that the larvae didn’t eat this kind of substrate. So I tried
several different kinds of substrate.
-
Wet rotten
leaves only
-
Relatively dry
leaves only
-
Relatively dry
Oak wood only
-
Wet Oak wood
only
-
Rotten red oak
wood
These mixtures led to the same result: The larvae kept on losing weight.... Now I tried feeding L3 larvae and pupae to the Goliathus larvae and voilá, they started growing. On the 19 November 1999 I was able to observe larvae 5 eating a E. smithi larvae. That one seemed to have died a little bit earlier as it’s colour was getting blackish. After some time, I was able to observe larvae 3 that had bitten a E. smithi larvae in the neck and thus killed it. The E. smithi larvae still was very fresh and the Goliathus larvae had its head in the body bend of the E. smithi larvae. When I hit the container by mistake, the G. larvae was moving backwards very fast. To me it seemed that the goliathus larvae were hunting for other larvae in their container. Pupae of Eudicella, meal worms, Zophobas, worms ( Lumbricus ssp), were taken equally. The larvae didn’t eat any of the substrate in their containers. Dry dog food and dry cat food wasn't taken by the larvae, it went mouldy very fast and lead to an increasing number of mites. when the larvae were infested by mites to much, their substrate was changed and they themselves were washed with a toothbrush and lukewarm water.
From now
on their weight was increasing quickly (See table), but was falling fast, when
the larvae were not fed with the larvae didn't get living prey, or when they
were put in bigger containers, filled with more substrate. This way of living
didn't seem to be natural, as larvae 1 died 03/15/00, larvae 3 died 04/29/0,
larvae 5 died 05/23/00 and larvae 4 died 05/15/00. Larvae was alive until
01/04/01 and seemed to make a pause, it stopped eating and was losing weight
very slow. I don't know, why the larvae died. Their behaviour changed in so far
that they simply got a little bit slowly in the end. I suggest the carnivorous
lifestyle was only a makeshift, as I wasn't able to feed them the right kind of
wood. Maybe the larvae feed on other invertebrates only as an additional
nutrition.
Date | Larvae 1 | Larvae 2 | Larvae 3 | Larvae 4 | Larvae 5 |
07.11.99 | 11,5 | 12 | 17 | 13 | 19 |
13.11.99 | 11,5 | 12 | 17 | 12 | 18 |
28.11.99 | 11,5 | 11,5 | 18,5 | 12,5 | 22 |
11.12.99 | 15 | 12 | 20 | 15,5 | 24 |
25.12.99 | 18 | 12,5 | 20 | 16 | 25 |
07.01.00 | 22 | 14 | 22 | 16 | 25 |
14.01.00 | 22 | 14 | 22 | 17 | 25 |
25.01.00 | 23 | 15 | 21 | 17 | 26 |
15.02.00 | 26 | 17 | 22 | 19 | 24 |
28.02.00 | 28 | 16 | 21 | 21 | 26 |
14.03.00 | 30 | 17 | 21 | 22 | 25 |
The weight measure is gram. After the 03/14/00 I was very busy and thus not able to weigh the larvae.
Until
now, I heard two thesis about the inbreedability of Goliathus ssp. (Only
suggestions, I don't take responsibility for their contents):
To conclude I want to
emphasise that this report is based on my own data. I ´m grateful for proposals,
criticism, hints and Contact to others who tried out Goliath beetle breeding
Supplement 1: Matthias Frei was able to reach the first generation breeding Goliathus goliathus. Last week a female F1 hatched out. A link to his homepage is on my linkslist.
Supplement 2: There are some more breeders that are breeding Goliathus ssp successful feeding larvae and/ or dog's or cat's food. Still this species seems to be very difficult to breed continuously and no breeder is reaching big size in his breedings. Although most of the larvae are feeding on dog's food, always there are some that refuse to feed and to grow and stay small until they die. I still tend to believe that Goliathus ssp. are food specialised like for example Lucanus cervus is on oak, etc. If you have a different opinion or are reaching big size in your breeding please write to me, I really would like to know. ( added on July 24. 2002)
Larva 5 L2
Copyright © B.Harink
Stand:
06. November 2007.