I know, I know, I do not stick to my promises and I haven’t published something new recently. However, this time I have an excellent excuse: Together with Daniel Ambuehl, a mushroom expert and artist, we have been working really hard on our new project: A new Society called ‘Verein Hirschkäfer’ (Stag Beetle Association). […]
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Luckily, beetles are not so easily infected with diseases, and it is a rather rare event that a breeder witnesses a disease that kills all his animals. However, there are a few diseases and parasites that do infest beetle larvae. The below is an old article of mine, where I found some of my larvae […]
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This is a breeding report for a species that was formerly known as difficult or impossible to breed. I found that if some measurements are taken, successful breeding and keeping of this species is not too difficult. First, I would like to thank Jack Lee (Taiwan), who made it possible for me to get some […]
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Dilochrosis atripennis is a medium-sized flower beetle from Australia. Its size in breeding is around 4 cm. It is considered an easy to breed species. However there are a few points which make this species stand out from the standard breeding process, for instance of Eudicella gralli. I suspect that the original stock of Dilochrosis […]
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Stephanocrates dohertyi were considered an impossible to breed species. I remember seeing single larvae offered for more than 100 DM at around 2000. I think no one ever succeeded in breeding these, and I doubt that anyone ever made it past F1. There were theories that the larvae need a special diet, but in the […]
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This is something that I have not recorded for quite some time, but will start doing again. Taking the head measurment of larvae is the safest way to determind which larval stadium the larva is in, more than the weight. Some of the head sizes of beetle larvae are given here. I think it will […]
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Finally, my new book on beetle breeding is printed and ready to be shared. After working on two editions of a German book on beetle breeding (Exotische Käfer – Pflege und Zucht by Benjamin Harink), I felt it was high time to write a more complete version with more images and above all in English. […]
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Coptomia mauritania fasciata is a beetle species from Madagascar. For some reason most Madagascan species, I was lucky enough to deal with, were very tricky to breed. A long time back I was successful in breeding two species of Bricoptis through a few generations. They were rather productive with high egg numbers, larvae were absolutely […]
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Osmoderma eremita is one of the bigger beetle species in Europe. Its size is between 2 and 4 cm big. There are populations in Germany as well. It is considered to be a very rare species. An interesting feature in this species is that they smell like Russian leather, sometimes one can even smell them […]
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This is a breeding report for Oxythyrea pantherina. Like many of my favourite Cetonidae, this species is small, as a result does need only little space and is easy to keep and reproduce. Oxythyrea pantherina is a North African species, from Tunisia, Morocco and Libya. Oxythyrea are normally easy to identify to a genus level, […]
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