{"id":3711,"date":"2021-03-18T23:12:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T23:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keepingbugs.com\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2022-04-17T17:25:51","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T17:25:51","slug":"sun-beetle-care-a-practical-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keepingbugs.com\/sun-beetle-care-a-practical-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun Beetle Care: A Practical Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Are you looking for a colourful, interesting and inexpensive pet without high requirements? Look no further and take some African sun beetles (Pachnoda marginata<\/em>). They are probably the most popular fruit beetle in the pet industry, but that doesn’t make them less interesting. These fascinating beetles are easy to keep and widely available. Besides that, you can easily combine them with other bug species like other flower beetles, snails and millipedes. In this article, we discuss how you can provide the best care for these beautiful little beetles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can easily house sun beetles (Pachnoda marginata<\/em>) in a terrarium, faunarium or plastic container. You should provide enough ventilation, comfortable warm temperature (between 20-28\u00b0C\/68-82\u00b0F), a good 4″ (10cm) layer of a quality substrate, and provide different nutritious foods. Your beetle colony will quickly start breeding and thrive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sounds easy, right? Well, keeping sun beetles is rather easy, but it is important to provide good care. How you do that? We will discuss 5 main topics: Housing, environment, climate, feeding and breeding. This will provide a complete hand-out to give these colourful friends proper care. But first, let’s talk more about sun beetles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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About Sun Beetles (Pachnoda marginata<\/em>)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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African Sun Beetle \/
African Fruit Beetle<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Pachnoda marginata<\/em><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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West and Central Africa<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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6 up to 10 months (2-5 months as grubs)<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Adult beetles around 1″ (2,5cm)<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Appearance <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The sun beetle can be recognized by its distinctive yellow front wings with brownish-black spots. The rest of its body is shiny black. The wings are black-transparent. It is a medium-sized beetle that has an average size of around 1″ (2.5cm). It has a typical beetle body plan but lacks any oversized appendages like seen with many other beetles. Generally, most beetles are sexually dimorphic \u2014 meaning that there is a visual difference between males and females. However, sun beetles of both sexes look pretty much the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The larvae \u2014 also called grubs \u2014 are completely white when they hatch. They slowly turn more white-yellow and a darker brown head. Grubs can be rather large, with sizes around 1.5″ (4cm) long. Fully grown grubs (that are almost ready to pupate) are evenly thick as your pinky finger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are 9 different recognized subspecies of sun beetles, and all are readily available from breeders. All differentiate in colour patterns on the front wings, but the rest of the body has the same shape and colours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A quick tip: <\/strong>Although male and female sun beetles look pretty much the same, you can sex them easily. The difference between them is that male sun beetles have a thin line running centrally down the underside of their abdomen. Females don’t have a line there. <\/div>