Time to write about my experiences with this interesting species in the genus Prosopocoilus. Strangely, they are not too popular when one browses the Internet for hot beetles that have become established as popular pets. Prosopocoilus bison should be, as they are, like many other in the genus, very undemanding and easy to reproduce. Prosopocolius bison on average reaches to around 6cm for telodont males, and they have a very beautiful pattern on the elytra, that ranges from a yellow border to a cinnamon-brown center. The thorax also has a yellow border. In my opinion this makes them one of the most ornamental species in the genus.
There are several subspecies in Prosopocoilus bison. At a first glance, they do look relatively similar, with mandible variations being the main differentiator. Subspecies known at the moment are:
- Prosopocoilus bison bison – Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea
- Prosopocoilus bison flavocinctus – Sumatra
- Prosopocoilus bison cinctus – Papua New Guinea
- Prosopocoilus bison buruensis – Buru Island
- Prosopocoilus bison tesserarius – Ambon
- Prosopocoilus bison magnificus – Tanimbar
- Prosopocoilus bison hortensis – Solomon Islands
They are all from the different areas in Indonesia, the Solomons and Papua New Guinea. I believe the ones that have been bred by hobbyists are Prosopocoilus bison cinctus from Papua New Guinea and Prosopocoilus bison hortensis from the Solomon Islands. I am not sure about others, and am thankful for correction here.
This report is about the species Prosopocoilus bison cinctus. I did get my larvae from my good friend Daniel Ambuehl, who needed to offload some species prior to taking on another project. I was more than happy to comply. I got a box with highly decomposed wood, with many L2-L3 larvae, in total around 30 or so. I separated those into single boxes of 500ml, which I had filled with white-rotten wood, as this was what they had been used to. No special needs here, I only made sure to compress the wood substrate as hard as I could. I did not need to change the substrate and the larvae were happily munching away. I had received them in December, and the first pupal cells started to appear in March and April.
One interesting feature of Prosopocoilus bison is that upon hatching they are active very fast and ready to mate, eat and lay eggs. Unlike many others I keep, no diapause, no waiting, and above all no problems in pupation. Which, considering the troubles I have with some of my current species, is a blessing.
The first ones to hatch were females and minor males. Once I had enough of them hatched, I prepared two egg laying containers, one in May and one in July. Both had a similar setup, relatively soft pieces of white rotten wood, on a compressed layer of white rotten sawdust and then everything covered with loose white rotten sawdust. I fed the adults with banana and beetle jelly. They were relatively active, and quite a nervous species, once disturbed, they tend to run away quickly and look for cover. The container that I set up in May contained 1,2, the one in July 2,4. This is not optimal, it is always better to have only one female per container, as they tend to disturb each other and destroy eggs and larvae. That said, since this species is really productive, and I had run out of space, I chose to set them up this way.
I checked the box (set up in May) yesterday and separated 40 larvae from it. This is around 20 eggs per female, not very productive for this species; I would guess that a single female could easily lay more than 50 eggs if kept alone. That said, I have more enough for myself and to share some. I have put the new larvae on a flakesoil diet, to see if I can achieve larger and telodont specimen in the next generation.
I have one or two mesodont males hatching just now, which also shows the need to keep more than just a few larvae if one wants to successfully breed stag beetles. Some of the original larvae are still that – fat L3 male larvae. It is interesting that the total development of this species within the offspring of the same female can take from 12-20 months. Not uncommon for stag beetles, but something to plan for. Let me know if you want some, I will take some with me to the insect fairs this fall.
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