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BREEDING MANUAL
1. GOLIATHUS GOLIATHUS
Goliathus goliathus is surely the most representative specimen of the genus goliathus. It is found in the most part of african tropical forests, from Guinea to Kenya.
Males can reach 11 cm of length, but most individuals do not reach 10 cm.
I think that g. goliathus is the specimen which is more frequently live imported and captive reared in Europe. Most of g. goliathus imported in Europe come from Cameroon.
hG. Goliathus may offer an incredible variety of colours: from the typical brown form, to the white botted or almost completely white forms, very researched by collectors.
Apicalis, Conspersus, Albatus, Quadrimaculatus are only the most known varieties: these names are related to the quantity and position of the white colour on the elytra. For unknown reasons, females are more frequently white coloured than males, in nature such as in adults captive reared. Maybe that the origin of white coloured forms of g. goliathus can be explained with the crossing, occurred in nature, of g. goliathus with g. orientalis.
Picture 1: The photo shows some white forms of goliathus goliathus; from left to right, quadrimaculatus, albatus/quadrimaculatus, albatus. It must be said that the distinction based on the colour forms, is extremely questionable, and often, what is quadrimaculatus for the seller, is albatus for the buyer...
1. BREEDING THE BEETLES: SETTING THE TERRARIUM
Rearing goliathus goliathus is not so difficult (it is even very easy, if compared to breeding g. cacicus), I think, if the entomologist has the care to consider the dimensions of this beetle.
G. Goliathus need a
terrarium which is at least cm 50x 50 x 60.
It must be set up with a ground part, made of substratum, which must be very compressed at the lowest level, and be deep no less than 25 cm. The composition of substratum wll be the same used for all the specimens of goliathus genus, yet described in the section dedicated to Albosignatus.
It is essential that beetles, in case of capsizing can suddenly reach the correct position, and this result is assured by the presence of many wood pieces at the surface of substratum: if the beetles stay on the back and can not turnover, in some hours they will die.
The first cause of death in young adult goliathus (mostly males) captive reared is because of back capsizing.
Males are extremely aggressive and no more than one male must be kept in the same terrarium; till to 3-4 females can be kept togheter: also females tend to fight for the food, but usually they do not hurt each other.
hiPicture.2: A terrarium completely set up for g. goliathus; no more than 1 male must be kept in a terrarium; till to 3 or 4 females can be kept totgheter. IMPORTANT: in this picture the terrarium was been removed of many wood pieces for the photo; the wood pieces you can see are not enough: almost all the surface must be completely covered with wood pieces.
The terrarium must be covered, of course for at least two reasons: to avoid that beetles escape, of course, and to mantain the humidity grade constant.
On my opinion it is better not to put in the terrarium wood pieces vertically inserted.
The vertical piece is used immediately from beetles to climb on and more than one beetle will try to keep the possession of the top, so that it will be easy to see hard fights. Addictionally, it will be used as base to fly, and it must be said that in the terrarium less the beetles fly, better it is.
Any specimen of goliathus can be reared at a temperature going from 21 to 29 C°; better is the range from 24 to 27 C°.
It is important to keep the substatum always humid, moistening it when necessary. Humid, not wet.
This is necessary at least for two reasons: first, to let the adults have the correct grade of humidity in their enviroment; second, to let the female laying eggs, eggs hatching, and larvae feeding.
2. FEEDING THE ADULTS
Nothing is easier.
Adults can be fed with banana slices, as in
picture n.2.
They do not need anything else but banana.
It must be said that today, it is available a great number of products that can be used to feed beetles, even in Europe.
These products are usually said beetles jelly. Beetles jelly is better to use than banana for 2 reasons: first, it is not infested by small flies after some hours and so you do not need to replace it in a little time; second, it containts proteins, which are particulary important for production of eggs by the female.
In the picture n.3 a terrarium for goliathus is set up with beetles jelly: some jelly boxes are directly inserted in the wood pieces.
Beetles do not usually need water, but I noted that some species like to drink fresh water, like cacicus, for example.
Beetles jelly must be replaced in three-four days, becasue it gets acid.
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Picture.3: A terrarium completely set up for g. cacicus: note the beetles jelly.
3. HOW TO OBTAIN EGGS
Goliathus mate at any time, during night and day, so easily to create immediately the illusion that rearing this beetle will be very easy.
I observed many times males of goliathus covering females even belonging to different species of the same genus (regius on orientalis, orientalis on cacicus, and so on).
Female needs to be covered by male only once in its life: after the first mating, female can lay fertilized eggs during its whole life. This becasue female can keep in its body the male's sperm for many months.
It is also the reason for which crossing can be obtained exclusively from virgin felmales, newer covered before.
So, keeping males and females toghether lifelong, may be only harmful for the female, becasue males want to mate continuously, causing stress in the females.
Picture 4: A male of g. goliathus (apicalis form) is covering the female; these beetles can mate at any time, during night and day.
Of course, if your aim is not only to obtain more eggs, but also to let goliathus live in captivity as much similarly as possible to their wild life, you will let male and females live together during all the time.
Newer forget that we are talking about live animales, that must be respected as much as possible, and I think that assuring them the best conditions of life in captivity should be a must for any breeder.
Mating is not enough to make the female lay eggs.
As I said in the section dedicated to Albosignatus, two different factors are extremely important to let goliathus lay eggs: total depth of substratum ( at least 25 cm) and hard compression at the lowest level (5 - 7 cm).
Females do not lay eggs if they do not find a sufficiently hardened substratum at the bottom of the terrarium.
But there is another, extremely important factor.
Goliathus females are encouraged to lay eggs when it can be felt the past presence of larvae belonging to their specimen in the same ground: so, it is important to rear different generations of goliathus always in the same terrarium, so that females can find inside the substratum the excrements of larvae previously reared in the same ground.
When female lay eggs, as said, they reach the bottom of the terrarium, and so they have to dig vertical tunnels: if you see on the surface of the substratum craters like the one in the picture n.4 it means that female is digging, and this is a good sign.
iOn the right, picture n. 5, shows a goliathus goliathus mature egg.
Eggs are left in the bottom of substratum, and are immediately recognizable in the substratum; just left, they measure about 3 mm x 1 mm; when they are mature, after 12-15 days, depending on teperature, they look like the one in the picture n. 5
Picture 5: Crater left on the substratum by a digging female of g. goliathus.
Picture 6: a mature egg of goliathus goliathus.
An expert breeder can dig in the substratum,
and look for eggs. These can be collected, with extreme care, and be put in
another little container, completely covered with substratum: in this way, eggs
can be picked up continuatively, and larvae can be immediately reared in a
single box, to avoid cannibalism.
As a matter of fact, cannibalism is present also in L1 stage. I myself observed L1 predating each other: it happens particulary when the terrarium is full of larvae.
In any case, I think it is absolutely better not to dig in the substratum, becasue it causes the lost of many eggs. About 30-40% of eggs are killed in this way for goliathus goliathus (less percentual is registered for goliathus orientalis preussi, which eggs can be handled withouth great problems): you'll newer loose so many larvae for cannibalism in the short period.
Another big problem is that digging, you upset the substratum, disrupting the hardened part of it, present at the bottom.
For these reasons, I think it is surely better to wait that females have finished to lay eggs (it is sure when they have died or are so old not to dig any longer), and only in this moment to dig and look for larvae and eggs.
Sometime, the presence of larvae in the substratum is revealed by themselves, like in the picture n. 6...
Picture 6: a freshly hatched larva of g. goliathus can be seen through the glass of terrarium .
4.REARING THE BUGS
Goliathus larvae are cannibalistic even in L1, so, they must newer be kept together.
They can stay together only for the strictly necessary time, which is the time during wich they stay in the terrarium all together, till the entomologist does not pick them up.
Each larva must be put in a single container, filled up with substatum made of pulverized rotten wood and leaves: the composition of substratum is the same for terrarium and rearing box. 1 liter box is enough for 1 L3.
During its life, the larva molts two times, one to pass in L2 stadium, and another one, to pass in L3 stadium: molting is necessary because larva needs bigger mandibles, and its head cannot grow: it can only be changed with a bigger one.
It must be clearily said that it is almost impossible to obtain an adult of goliathus if you use only substratum for feeding the larvae, because they need proteins to grow up.
I noted that goliathus eat substratum only in L1 and L2, and very rarely in L3 (only at the begin of L3).
These larvae must be fed with proteins, which can be easily found in: dry pellet dogs/cat, turtles food, etc.
You can also use, if you want, live preys, such as meat and earth worms, but
only in L3: in L2 and L1, it must be used dry food, or simply substratum.
Picture 7: a goliathus larva has just molted in L3 and its old skin is still visible .
If you use prepared food (dog/cat or turtles food), you must remove the food not eaten by larva, becasue it generates mites very suddenly.
Dry pellet dog must be left in number of 1-3 at the surface of substratum, so that you can easily verify if larva eats them; in three days alll the dry pellet dogs must be removed because they create mites.
Goliathus larvae in captivity reach in most cases a weight of 35-40 grams for females, and 50-60 grams for males, but a weight of 70 - 80 grams can be reached withouth problems for males correctly fed.
In any case, a weight of 100 grams, seems to be reachable for males, but as I know, the maximum weight reached so far is 95 grams.
The minimum weight for molting in pupa is 25-30 grams, for what I noted.
A larva weighting 40 grams produces an adult not longher than 65 mm; a larva weighting 70-80 grams gives an adult longher than 70 mm. Wild adults near to 11 cm were probably larvae over 110 grams of weight.
When the larva has finished to grow, about in 10-12 months, it starts to keep a typical behaviour, which is clear sign that it near to molt in pupa. It starts to walk around the container, trying to escape from it in any way: many times, I found g. goliathus larvae walking on the floor on their back side: they removed the top of container and escaped from it.
In this moment larvae must be put in a 10-15 liters pail and pail must be covered with an heavy cap.
The grub will have to build its cocoon, in this container.
Cocoon is always built near the bottom of the box, and it must be made of hard material, to avoid the collapse. For this reason, larva needs some sand to be able to build a solid cocoon. I use to put in the pail a mix of 70% of substratum, and 30% of sand. The total depth of this mixed ground must be at least 25 centimeters.
Larva goes on walking around in the container for some days before to disappear definitively under ground: since when it disappears, the building of the cocoon is started and it will take abouth 2-3 days to be completed.
Larva must absolutely not be disturbed during the cocoon construction, because this is the most important step for the future development into adult.
Many times, when disturbed, larvae destroy the cocoon, and escape from it: in this case the destination is inevitably the death, becasue they will newer and newer build another cocoon. Some times, in these cases, if you are an expert breeder, you can make the larva develop in an artificial cocoon, but this operation is extremely difficult also for experienced breeders, because larva will not accept easily the artificial cocoon, and when this is accepted, it will be in any case very easy to obtain a deformed adult.
For these reasons, I do not think that inexperienced breeder should remove the cocoon from the box in which it was built: he only has to wait till the adult emerges from the ground.
Expert breeders knows how to remove the cocoons, of course: after one-two months since the moment in which the larva disappeared under ground, they dig with a lot of care to find the cocoon, and when it is found (always near the bottom of the box), it is put in a smaller container, taking care to cover it completely with the same ground in which it was found: unlike other cetoninae as chelorrhina poliphemus, goliathus newer uses the sides of the box to build its cocoon, so it can be easily removed.
The biggest risk in these cases is to disturb the larva not yet molted in pupa: it can break the cocoon and get active, with the result that it will newer get an adult (unless you are able to make it develop in an artificial cocoon).
Time of full development in adult depends on many factors (temperature, humidity, etc.), but in captivity, it seems to take a longer time. I noted particulary, that pre-pupa period is innaturally long (even three months).
So, usually, the total time required to have an adult from an egg, is at least 14-15 months (11 -12 months for the full larval development; 2-4 months from the cocoon construction to the appearance of the adult ).
Following, it can be seen an incredible sequence of pictures, showing the full goliathus development inside the cocoon.
Picture 8: Full development sequence of a female of goliathus goliathus conspersus, from the pupa to the adult: pictures were obtained breaking the cocoon and mantaining it over the ground.
Following, it can be seen something more: an only sequence of pictures, showing the full goliathus development outside the cocoon.
Picture 8: Full development sequence of a male of goliathus goliathus apicalis, from the larva to the adult.
The most difficult step is, as said, to surpass the pre pupa period, during which larva is exremely sensible to any factor of disturb: it can break the cocoon in any moment.
When it has got a pupa, everything is easier, because it is enough to wait, assuring constant conditions of temperature and humidity.
Remember that goliathus can tolerate better a dry enviroment than a wet one, during the pupal period; it is difficult that dry conditions kill the pupa or the prepupa.
So, if the pail is covered, it is not necessary to mantain the humidity for the cocoon: this will be assured naturally because the cocoon is under ground.
Newer add water to the ground in which pupa lies.
When the adult is formed inside the cocoon, it stays inactive for a pair of months, during which it is unable to eat and to mate.
As soon as emerged, the adult can immediately eat and mate, and a new generation can be produced.
Goliathus adult can live in captivity till to 8 months, for my observation. Females usually live longer than males.
Picture 9: A young adult of g. goliathus, brown (typical ) form.
ALBOSIGNATUS CACICUS GIGANTEUS ORIENTALIS REGIUS