How to artificially breed the shanshuiniu? A detailed explanation of methods and techniques

The shanshuiniu is not “cattle”, but an insect! The shanshuiniu is a type of longhorn beetle. They merely look similar on the outside, but lack the spots found on longhorn beetles. When I was little, every year at the summer solstice when it rained, I would go with my friends to the red grassland to catch shanshuiniu. Wearing a straw rain cape, carrying a cape, and holding a teapot in hand - putting them in the teapot was firstly to prevent the shanshuiniu from flying away, and secondly to keep them fresh. So how do you artificially breed the shanshuiniu?

Living habits of the shanshuiniu: Around the Beginning of Autumn, during the first heavy rain, it emerges from the soil, mates within a few hours, after which the female lays eggs, which hatch into yellow larvae that live underground the whole time, feeding on the roots of perennial grasses such as yellow grass and cogon grass.

At present there are no reports of artificial breeding of the shanshuiniu. Nor is there any breeding technique to speak of. If you want to breed them, you need to plant the grass-family plants that the Dazya soil longhorn beetle feeds on (for example, plant according to the surrounding plant environment where the adults were found), set up escape-prevention devices around the area, and then catch parent longhorn beetles to mate and reproduce. Normally, spraying pesticides near the grassland is strictly prohibited; when you need to collect them in summer, you can water artificially to prompt their emergence. At this stage we can only simulate the natural living environment and carry out semi-artificial breeding while exploring.

The shanshuiniu has a very short lifespan, only half a day. It lays its eggs in the soil, and after hatching into yellow larvae, they live underground the whole time, feeding on the roots of perennial grasses such as yellow grass and cogon grass. After three years they mature into pupae, then emerge as adults, but they remain in a dormant state, hidden underground. Only around the summer solstice each year, when thunderstorms break out, do they suddenly awaken and drill out of the ground one after another. After emerging, they either fly, crawl, or are caught by humans; the survivors hurriedly seek a mate, and once both have finished mating, the female busies herself laying eggs while the male continues to wander, and within a day all of them die. Their life is as brief as that of a mayfly.