Written by 1. As I mentioned before horse dung should lead to good sizes in Imagos. I mixed in about ten percent of dung to some of my larvae, but I think it should be more to get recognizable results.
2. Always change your substrate before it is all eaten up. Too late change of substrate and eaten up substrate bring smaller imagos.
3. Try different wood and leaves mixtures. Only as an example: Oak contains Myo-Inositol, which brings good size and growing in Lucanus cervus (Read in KLAUSNITZER, Hirschkäfer, Neue Brehm Bücherei). REMARK July 2012: I think the Myo-Inositol was something that could never be validated. I am however still convinced that Oak normally guarantees good results.
4. The finer the substrate is, the faster the larvae seem to grow. (See 1.4)
5. Try to avoid the replacing the substrate with different substrate. (For instance oak to birch and leaves), as the larvae loses weight getting used to the new food. REMARK July 2012: Consistency has proven to be a very important factor. If you can, stick to one substrat.
6. REMARK July 2012: Temperature has proven to be a very important factor. For big imagines I would suggest to keep the larvae around 20 degrees. Similar species like Dynastes neptunus actually will only do well, when kept below 20 degree Celsius.
7. REMARK July 2012: There are a lot of discussions on protein additions and in Japan you can buy some ‘magical’ powders for gigantic Dynastes hercules. However, I am still a bit sceptical. If all other conditions are good, you should be able to get big sized imagines. Proteins will help to add a few millimeters in the end. So far, my tests with protein additions have been discouraging, but I am always willing to change my opinion. So, if you have a differing view, please do let me know
Please be careful when experimenting and also take a good look at the larvae to see if it stays healthy. Only like that you can avoid losing your larvae. If you have different tricks, please let me know, I am happy about news (Benjamin Harink)
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