10/18/2021: Eaten out of house and home by Eleodes spinipes

This update didn’t take long.

It seems these darkling larvae grow exponentially. Since my last post on them, the average larva size in the container seems to have quintupled and they have entered the “eat handfuls of dog food every few days” phase of growth. This has me a little… antsy, considering I’ll soon have to devise pupation techniques for them. Fortunately if I don’t worry about compromising the size of the adults, larvae can stay at their maximum size for a long time without too many ill effects. I may be… dare I say it? Fanciful? And give a clay-based pupation medium a try in an attempt to cut corners and save some effort.

As a positive footnote, I have found Embaphion contusum larvae which means this species will be back in culture once more shortly if all goes well.

-Kyle