Scientific Study: The Breeding of Hercules Beetles
In February of 2006, Yasuhiko Kasahara wrote a long and detailed article on the breeding of Hercules Beetles.
He began with a brief history of beetle rearing in Japan, a relatively new fad at the time. Going into detail about giant beetle, which the Hercules Beetle is his favorite. He talks about how big beetles can be found in nature and the possibilty of breeding them that large.
Section two is on their Natural History.
Description: size, color, details of head.
Habitat: Tropical rain forests
Range: Guadalupe and Dominica
Food: tree sap, trees
Life Cycle: largely unknown
Section three discusses the actual procedure for rearing Hercules Beetles in capitivity.
What you need: larvae, containers, food, etc.
How to rear the larvae
How to tell if it's male of female in the larvae stage
How to maintain them
Section four is about the substrate, bark compost.
Section five gives tips on how to achieve a beetle of maximum length
Ideal temperature (25 degress celcius)
Heavy male larvae
- Keep males alone
- Change substrates every three months
- Don't touch substrate
- Keep containers in dark, well-ventilated place
- Keep containers apart
- Don't touch unless necessary
Section six is the acknowledgements.
For the full article click here.