Rhino beetles

We are growing "kabutomushi" or Japanese rhinoceros beetles since 3 years ago. I bought 2 pairs of adult insects at the nearby morning market 4 years ago. They died in September but in November we noticed lots of larvae in the plastic box that we put the adult beetles in. Since then we are breeding their descendants. So we have the fourth generation this year.

They look like this.




We made them hybernate as a group in a big container, then in April moved each one into a 2 litter PET juice bottle so that we can observe them. Since we had so many larvae, we kept just 4 males and 4 females and gave away the rest of them to Makoto's friends. Nanae used to love insects also, but now she hates bugs just as usual girls.


They looked like this in the bottle for a while.


But at the end of May some of them changed in appearance (shape and color). They were turning into a chrysalis.


Chrysalises are bright orange. When they turn brown, they are ready to emerge. We have to wait for a few more weeks.