Passalidae – Or the story of the pet hole

I do not remember where I had read the term pet hole, I think it was on a tarantula forum. This brought an intense smile to my phase, as it also describes many of our beetle pets perfectly well. With tarantulas, the especially funny thing is that many of the amazingly beautiful species are what you never see, or maybe catch a glimpse of it every few months, before it rushes back into its hiding hole. Well, I think pet hole is the perfect description for what you are keeping then.

A typical pet hole inhabitant, interesting, but you hardly ever see them

I would like to tell you a bit about my experiences with Passalidae, or the so called sugar beetles. I feel they are annoyingly common, usually when one tries to find Lucanidae or other larvae in rotten wood. Their presence normally is a sure sign to go and check somewhere else. When they are within a log or piece of wood, your chances of actually finding a stag beetle, are really low.

Plus, they seem to look the same everywhere one goes, I have seen them in many countries, and they are always immediately recognizable. Plus, you always find many of them, because they live together. Wait, insects living together, could be interesting. And even better, they seem to have some sort of parental care for their larvae, as you not only find them together, but imagines will also leave any larvae you find with them unharmed, even if put into a crammed place. Imagine this with Lucanidae, and all you end up with is probably a female, and dead or wounded larvae.

So, this got me thinking, how nice it would be to keep them and actually observe them closer, and of course document any communal living I might observe. And this is where some of the trouble started. Despite Passalidae being very common in many countries, they are almost impossible to find with dealers, let alone breeders. I finally managed to find someone who could give me 5, those were a smaller species from Gabon, around 3cm in size. Those were put into a big 22 Liter box, filled with pieces of white rotten wood, in varying degrees of hardness.

Passalidae from Gabon 2

Once they were put into the box, they immediately dug into the wood, and ever since them I have never seen them again. I know that they are still alive, as I do see new sawdust being pushed out different pieces of wood from time to time. But that’s it. I recently opened one of the logs, just to see, but no larvae, but lots of sawdust, and I saw a beetle, which was very active still. These seem to have a long lifespan, and still look like new. I will check again in a few months.

Until then, I will have another pet, which I never see, and it is hard to explain to non-hobbyists why I keep boxes of dirt, and am happy about it. Ah well. I will keep you updated.