Oplostomus fuligineus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae): life cycle and biology under laboratory conditions, and its occurrence in bee hives

Abstract

Oplostomus fuligineus Olivier (Cetoniinae: Cremastocheilini) has been known as a pest in bee hives in southem Africa since the early 1900's. This is the first description of its life cycle and breeding habits. Eggs were laid in a mixture of soil and cattle dung and took 6 to 10 days (mean 7.9 days) to hatch. The larvae (description is given) were fed on a mixture of soil, compost and cattle dung in the ratio of 1:2:3 by volume and took 30 to 38 days (mean 33 days) to become pupae. The pupae took 21 to 29 days (mean 25 days) to eclosion. Survival rate of eggs was 95%, larvae 61% and pupae 71%. Female and male adults could be distinguished by the shape of the abdominal stemites. They fed preferentially on open bee brood containing larvae, also on young capped brood and survived well on pollen and honey. In nature they seldom feed on flowers as do other Cetoniinae. The black hive beetle Oplostomusfuligineus Olivier is a predacious, African, scarabaeid species belonging to the tribe Cremastocheilini and has the inferior synonym Hoplostoma. It has been known to apiarists as a pest in bee hives in southern Africa since the early 1900's (Fuller 1921). However, nothing has been published on the breeding habits of this cetoniine beetle although H. Ashenbourne (pers. comm.) of the CSIRO Dung Beetle Unit in Pretoria has discovered beetles in their hard, mud cocoons under old cattle dung on a farm east of Pretoria. With this information and my previous experience of rearing Cetoniinae I attempted to rear 0. fuligineus in the laboratory to determine its feeding preferences and the length of its life cycle (Donaldson 1987). Its life cycle was compared with that of Pachnoda sinuataflaviventris Gory and Percheron, which has also been found in bee hives.