Met my lovely postman at the door this morning holding a box marked 'CAUTION – ALIVE'. He said he was extremely cautious especially as he knew it was coming here and knows we have a large and varied collection of living things. So chuffed! Its the African Fruit Beetles for our new beetle tank! I have been spending some time setting up a special tank just to observe and breed fruit beetles in with my sons. The species we have ordered are Eudicella aethiopica, Eudicella schultzeorum pseudowoermani, Coelorrhina hornimanni, Megalorrhina harrisi, Smagdethnes africna oertzeni and Pachnoda marginata peregrina, all fantastically marked and just superb. All my stock come from a reliable supplier and are NOT wild caught- pretty passionate about that one. I have to admit beetles get me really excited and even yesterday I was pointing out great little Asparagus Beetles, Crioceris asparagi, to the children as their grubs munch away at the asparagus ferns. Brilliant chaps and just so gorgeous. I digress. With the species we have, all the Eudicella and Coelorrhina can interbreed and their grubs are carnivorous as well as fruit eaters so some management there but still really, really excited. Different beetles are on top of the substrate at different times of the day too which adds to the variety. So excited!!!
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| Aren't they beautiful? |
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