What should be noted when keeping dung beetles for breeding?

The dung beetle is also called shi ke lang, and many people also call it shi ge (gè) lang, tui wan, etc. It belongs to the order Coleoptera, family Scarabaeidae, subfamily Scarabaeinae. There are about 2300 species of dung beetles in the world, distributed on every continent except Antarctica. Dung beetles can use the polarization of moonlight to navigate, which helps them find food. They have a certain phototaxis. These insects that burrow into cow dung can roll the dung into balls and push them forward. They mainly feed on animal droppings and have the title of “nature's scavenger”, also known as “Mo Duo Sheng”.

When dung beetles go from being wild to being raised artificially, there is the issue of keeping breeding stock. Although artificial rearing has not been carried out for long, because the issue of keeping breeding stock was not noticed in the earlier period, problems of seed stock degeneration have also appeared, shown as deformation of the insect body, reduced egg production, weakened vitality, etc. Therefore, when keeping breeding stock in the future, the following issues must be noted:

1) Selection of females

For breeding females, choose healthy females that are large in size, oval-shaped, full in the abdomen, glossy, strong in activity, quick in movement, large in food intake, and free of parasites and diseases.

2) Selection of eggs for breeding

For all the oothecae laid by one egg-laying female, because the laying periods differ, their vitality also differs. In general, eggs laid by young and vigorous adults from July to August have a high hatching rate, and the hatched nymphs are robust and strong in vitality. Therefore, eggs laid during the peak egg-laying period are best kept as breeding eggs. Oothecae that resemble bean pods, are reddish-brown, glossy, and have plump eggs can be kept for breeding; those with shrunken, damaged, or moldy eggs are not suitable for keeping for breeding.

3) The issue of whether to keep or remove males

Male nymphs at the 8th instar can be picked out before growing wings and either used as medicine or used as feed insects for centipedes, which both reduces feed and increases utilization. If they are to be kept as breeding insects, then they should no longer be removed, so as not to affect the fertilization rate of the eggs. In addition, males mature earlier and have shorter lifespans than females. In production, the males among the same batch of breeding insects to be kept should be picked out and placed into the breeding female group that hatched 3 to 5 months earlier for mating, so that the males can be fully utilized. Therefore, doing a good job of sex identification of nymphs before the males grow wings is what helps with the utilization of males.