Anthia sexmaculata
Egyptian Predator Beetles are a popular species to keep in the beetle hobby, but breeding them has proved to be almost impossible so far. At Cornwall Beetles we are researching and trialing multiple set-ups in the hope of gaining knowledge about this species and how best to cater for their breeding needs.
Our story
We initially bought eight adult beetles and set them up in a large glass terrarium with a sandy substrate of 'bearded dragon' and 'leopard gecko' substrates. We added some nice looking dragon rocks, cork bark, cacti and a decent sized Exo-Terra cave. The beetles were immediately active, running all over the enclosure and finding places to hide.​​​​​​​​​​
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The initial enclosure had an LED strip light inside the lid which provided great lighting to the full tank, however it did not provide any warmth and there was not a temperature gradient in the enclosure. We therefore added a heat lamp and removed the lid (these beetles cannot fly). There is no obvious way of determining the sex of these beetles without seeing them mating, and we hadn't seen any in the first few weeks, so clearly something needed changing. After reading a research paper online I found that another Anthia sp. had been observed mating at the start of their rainy season. With this in mind I started gently spraying the enclosure once daily. Within a matter of days they started mating.
Mating continued regularly with at least one occurrence observed daily. Once a female had mated several times I removed her and placed in a separate enclosure with a much deeper sandy substrate. A few days later I repeated this with a second female, placing her in a second separate enclosure. This female has been digging furiously into the sand and underneath the cork bark. I have yet to find any eggs in the substrate but will check again soon.
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The one thing that makes this species difficult to breed in captivity is the apparent requirement of ant's nest. We are currently building up three healthy nests that might meet the beetles' requiremnts. One nest is of Lasius niger and the other two are Messor barbarus. Both of these species are native to northern Africa and are relatively easy to keep. We had one enclosure custom made for us by the local company Entoscapes. This setup has a large nest box and a well sized outworld which will connect to the main Tiger beetle tank.
I made the second Messor barbarous nest myself using a block of AAC. I chiselled the groves and chambers and tidied them up with a dremel. It features a glass screen for easy viewing and a red acetate sheet (ants apparently can't see through it)
Previously we had one egg laid on the top of the substrate in the main tank. Unfortunately it didn't last long as one of the males quickly grabbed it and ate it.
After three weeks in the isolated enclosures neither female had laid an egg so I decided to try a different method. I removed both single females and added actively mating pairs to each enclosure - one of them with an all new substrate. After just one night in the new enclosure I found an egg! This egg was immediately removed and placed in its own tub for safety. Now we just have to work out what incubation temperatures are required for the egg to hatch. The eggs are actually smooth, this one has a coating of fine sand.
Our Messor barbarous colony is taking a very long time to grow and seems to be more challenging to keep than we had previously thought - ants are not our specialist area. We have therefore added two colonies of Myrmica ruginodis to our collection which joined us as large colonies with huge numbers of workers. One of these is kept in a sandy soil and has been allowed to build it's own nest, making it easier for the female beetles to dig down into it. We introduced mated females one at time for short periods (they started eating the ants at a phenomenal rate but soon after began digging deep into the substrate. Due to this method we currently don't know if any eggs have been laid in the nests.
