Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am in the process of raising some Megasoma sleeperi I collected in Imperial County. I have them in with some oak leaf mold (foot deep) and some Megasoma frass. I have not seen the adults feed and I have tried all sorts of fruit and maple syrup. If any one has any suggestions on my set up please let me know. Is there any one breeding Megasoma vogti out there. Thanks

Since the third instar larva of M. sleeperi are exclusively parasitic on pseudoscorpions that live on the ticks in the armpits of the Algodones sand yeti, I would strongly suggest hunting for some shedded armpit hair (look on overhanging branches of Palo Verdes, Smoke Trees, or Creosote Bush during a full moon) or perhaps night driving the dunes hoping to find a road kill that you can shave.

That sounds a little fare fetched but it is possible considering the scarcity of M. sleeperi. The Sand Yeti of that region has not been seen since the late 70's. So I think it would be hard for me to confirm or disconfirm the obligatory nature of M. sleeperi that you suggest. Any way I have got my M. sleeperi to lay eggs on the substrate that I have provided them. The males are all dead now but the females are still alive so there is a slim chance of still collecting them on the dunes. If anyone is breeding Megsoma vogti please put a message up. Thanks

Why do you think M. sleeperi is so scarce? Prior to the 1970s M. sleeperi was much more common, as were Sand Yetis. As to be expected, with the rapid decline of the Sand Yeti over the last 30 years or so, M. sleeperi has also suffered a sharp decline. A friend of mine, however, recently (2001) found a roadkill Sand Yeti. Knowning that I was interested in M. sleeperi, and my theory on the parasitic habits of their larvae, he shaved the yetis pits and found several Sand Yeti ticks. Each tick had several Sand Yeti Tick Pseudoscorpions hitching a ride under the folds of their engorged abdomens. He collected the lot and traded them to me for a twelve pack of Lucky Lager, a black leather zipper mask, and some poloroids of my sister naked. At any rate, I was able to get a lone female M. sleeperi (which I collected during a fullmoon by placing a roadkill skunk on a large oval mirror positioned precisely in the center of a circle of 30 4-D cell Maglights suspended 12 feet above and pointed downward at the skunk/mirror to reflect the illuminated silloutte to a California kingsize bed sheet suspended 15 feet above the flashlights) to lay a few eggs on the few strands of the Sand Yeti pit hair, which I kept together with the ticks and pseudoscorpions. Once the larvae hatched, they headed right for the now sadly deflated ticks and plucked the pseudoscorpions right out from under them with their specialized pseudoscorpion-plucking mouthparts. After feeding, and ungoing several molts in the period of about 15 minutes, each larva congregated together and spun a suspended silken cocoon hive in which they sealed themselves. They have been pupating in the hive for about 2 years now. I believe that they are getting ready to metamorph because the pulses of their bioluminescent abdomens have been intensifying in brightness, increasing in frequency, and are now syncronized in perfect unison. I should have some beetles by the end of the year.

Anyhow, I wish you luck with your eggs. If you can't get Sand Yeti Tick Pseudoscorpions, you might want to try Sea Monkeys, Kay-Ro Surup, and green foodcoloring mixed together. Good luck, let me know how they do.