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Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:56 pm
by Darkrai283
[03.12.14]

The longest stag beetle species in the world is in my hands again. :D

It's been 8 years now since I last kept this species. I received a pair today (96mm male) from Alex and I'm hoping to be able to breed them again. :)

I'll upload the photos later as they're on the computer and I'm on my phone now.

...But here's the unboxing video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcZ3DdTyCZk[/youtube]

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:58 pm
by Darkrai283
Here are the pics:

ImageIMG_1514 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
ImageIMG_1529 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
ImageIMG_1518 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
ImageIMG_1534 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
ImageIMG_1556 by Darkrai283, on Flickr

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:58 pm
by Darkrai283
[18.12.14]

A video of just the male

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxD3I2mPw0g[/youtube]

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:59 pm
by Darkrai283
[21.12.14]

There is some evidence of egg laying... not in the logs but in the substrate. :)

Female:
ImageUntitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr

Eggs:
ImageUntitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr
ImageUntitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:59 pm
by Darkrai283
[11.01.15]

I had a rummage in the top few centimeters of the substrate to check if the logs had been gnawed into and found 4 eggs.

ImageUntitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:59 pm
by Darkrai283
[04.02.15]

I stumbled across a newly hatched larva while changing the jelly pots. :)

ImageIMG_2587 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
ImageIMG_2575 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
ImageIMG_2576 by Darkrai283, on Flickr

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:59 pm
by Darkrai283
[08.02.15]

I had a proper dig in the whole laying tank and found 26 eggs and 6 larvae. So in total, I have 10 larvae and 26 eggs so far. :clap:

ImageUntitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 2:49 pm
by SundewWolf
I love stag beetles! I'm raising a native larva right now too- Lucanus capreolus!

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 5:29 pm
by tish
OMG ! Those babies are cute!!

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:03 pm
by SundewWolf
Do you feed them anything other than wood and substrate?

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:47 pm
by Darkrai283
SundewWolf wrote:Do you feed them anything other than wood and substrate?
The adults feed on fruit which can very easily obtained but I'm using a specialist beetle jelly from Japan.

The larvae of Prosopocoilus spp. feed on soft-medium decay of white, rotten oak, beech, or sweet chestnut wood but wood (especially oak which is the best for stags) is extremely hard to find here in the UK so to 'increase the volume' of the wood substrate, I add oak leaf mulch. However, this is very low in nutritional content so if they are fed on this mix throughout their larval cycle, the adult males will be very small with minor horns:
(like the adult male on the very right)
Image

... so the larvae need to be transferred to 'Kinshi' (mycelium) bottles once they are larger in order to obtain larger specimens.
Image

But then again, if I were living in Japan (the 'capital' of the countries with beetle hobbysits breed beetles), they have already perfected their breeding substrates and such so I won't have to go through all of this, as they sell ready made substrate and kinshi bottles for beetles in supermarkets. :lol:

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2015 8:12 am
by ps3isawesome
oh man i am loving your serious of bug photos, please keep them coming !! thank yo so much for sharing

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:25 am
by jwalker
I agree this is really cool I want some now lol could u guys point me in the direction of a place to buy some

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:20 pm
by SEWinans
Those are so awesome!!! Congratulations on the cute little babies !

Re: Giraffe Stag Beetle, PROSOPOCOILUS GIRAFFA ssp. KEISUKEI

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 11:34 pm
by Consider trapezoids
Does anyone know how long these beetles live as adults? I just my first pair and I'm not planning on breeding them for a bit.