New pet

 

Was messing around at Santa Fe Dam and found this Eleodes carbonaria individual under a wood chunk. Although rather plain-looking, I knew at first sight that this was one of the rarely-encountered Eleodes species but it wouldn't hold still so I put it in a vial to photograph later.

Well, guess who accidentally brought themself home a darkling? Yeah, you guessed it. I totally forgot about the vial and went home and, well, then I was stuck at home with a darkling in a vial.


I've noticed that this species doesn't run around rabidly in circles like E. acuticauda and gracilis (and Coniontis) do. Instead, it sleeps most of the day and most of the night, and when it does come out (usually to eat fruits and vegetables) it seems pretty calm. Also, I'm really a fan of the way its elytra and pronotum have matching textures, and how its gait is smooth and fluid instead of clunky like acuticauda/gracilis and a lot of the other long-legged darklings. Was this thing custom made to appeal to me?

Anyways, it's certainly no fun watching a beetle that spends much of its life asleep, but I like its not-circling behavior so I'll keep it captive for now in hopes that maybe I'll be able to captive breed a colony and release specimens to places in need of darkling repopulation. Also, speaking of which, I'm heading to Griffith Park to catch some darklings (to throw into NHMLA) tomorrow, wish me luck. I'll probably avoid tossing non-Griffith ones into NHMLA for the sake of local genetics, just in case the museum decides to build a wildlife corridor all the way into the hills one day far into the future.