Food Fight!

One of the reasons I have become so fond of my daughter's beetles...








If you cannot tell, two of the verucosus each have a piece of carrot and there are three unclaimed pieces of carrot....yet those two darkling beetles had to have the SAME piece of carrot lol.

Yeah I always enjoy watching my insects fight, as odd as it may sound. It's suprisingly entertaining.

These two were really going at it too! The big one was trying to keep it away from the smaller one, and ended up rolling over holding the carrot, and ended up on his back. So funny. The little one was very persistant!

I love how in the 2nd to last image, on the right your Blue Death Feigning beetle is hogging and completely covering it's own piece of food. "It's mine you other bugs!" lol

I am sorry to say that both of the black beetles have died. They had a good life, lots of food, and decent longevity is my understanding. Hisserdude ID'd the smaller one, and I finally found that the large one was an Euledes, specifically a "desert stink beetle", found it on bugguide.net. In fact, Hisserdude had submitted a photo of what I think our Euledes was.

The smaller beetle was scavenged on after it died. The larger one was not so we will be pinning it at some point. I have it sitting on a lid with a male Arilus cristatus that we are also going to pin.

Sorry to hear it. Good choice pinning them. Perfect way to start your pinned collection.

To soften them, either pin right away while they are soft or float them in water for a while. If you don't the legs can break off when putting the pin through. Try to pin through the upper part of the right elytra (wing cover).
You can easily see the pin placement on this one:

Also, try not to use pins that will rust.

Praxibetelix wrote:I am sorry to say that both of the black beetles have died. They had a good life, lots of food, and decent longevity is my understanding. Hisserdude ID'd the smaller one, and I finally found that the large one was an Euledes, specifically a "desert stink beetle", found it on bugguide.net. In fact, Hisserdude had submitted a photo of what I think our Euledes was.

The smaller beetle was scavenged on after it died. The larger one was not so we will be pinning it at some point. I have it sitting on a lid with a male Arilus cristatus that we are also going to pin.

Sorry to hear that, sounds like they had a good life though. I can't really tell without a dorsal shot, but your large Eleodes looks like either E.acuticaudus or E.armatus, can't say for certain without a dorsal shot though.

What's a dorsal shot? It's dead now so I can take any photo you need

We will try to pin them right. I have no frame or styrofoam now. What kinds of pins do you suggest? And where would I find them?

Praxibetelix wrote:What's a dorsal shot? It's dead now so I can take any photo you need

Underneat, upsidedown.

Praxibetelix wrote:We will try to pin them right. I have no frame or styrofoam now. What kinds of pins do you suggest? And where would I find them?

Search for insect pins on ebay. They are sold in packs of 100.

mothman27 wrote:

Praxibetelix wrote:What's a dorsal shot? It's dead now so I can take any photo you need

Underneat, upsidedown.

No, actually the opposite, a dorsal shot means I need a picture of it from above. A ventral shot would be from underneath.

Here is the best I could do, all I have for a camera is an iPhone4...embarrassing

Praxibetelix wrote:Here is the best I could do, all I have for a camera is an iPhone4...embarrassing

The pics aren't that bad, looks like it's Eleodes acuticaudus.