Impressive MTU

In this post the species Mecynorhina torquata ugandensis will be discussed. We will handle the following subjects briefly:
1 Background and general breeding tips
2 Larval cannibalism (?)
3 Future projections: Cyborgs
4 Future projections: Genetic studies (only for the ambitious! )

You can navigate through the text using ctrl+f and entering the desired title, or you can just read along.

1 Background

Mecynorhina Torquata Ugandensis, or MTU, is one of the most common species in European breedings. It is a species within the subfamily of the cetoniinae, tribe Goliathini.
Tribe Goliathini contains a wide variety of mostly African species, many of which are bred in captivity. Some of them enjoy a legendary status within the breeding scene for their size and beauty.  The goliath beetle, Goliathus goliathus, is also part of tribe goliathini. It is the biggest flowerchafer that roams the earth. Some rare specimens reach 110mm in their wild habitat. Females are usually smaller, reaching up to maximum 85 mm.
Mecynorhina torquata comes second in size  after beetles from the genus Goliathus. Some males are reaching 85 mm in the wild. Unlike Goliathus, Mecynorhina torquata is fairly easy to breed. The larvae grow well on a wide array of substrates and manage to complete their cycle in 1-1.5 year. This is a very fast cycle for such a big beetle.
The females are easily induced to laying eggs and can live long lives (in beetle terms, that is). The polymorphism of the beetle make it attractive both alive and death. This beetle really has it all!

In nature MTU adults can be quite different in appearance. The colour of the animals can vary a lot depending on their genetic make-up. The English wikipedia page on the species shows the tip of the iceberg on the different natural colour variations the species displays in their natural habitat

In Japan, where beetle breeding is an integral part of pet culture, many selective breeding projects took place and are still going on. By selective breeding many different forms were created. Now there are blue, green, orange, purple and black forms, almost all of them finding their roots in Japanese projects. This is why many call these selected strains "Japanese MTU" or "MTU from a Japanese mix". Crossbreeding between these colours can give  surprising results. I seldom take pictures of my breeding results. To give an idea on the variety of appearances of the species, I refer to breeders who do take plenty pictures from their breedings: MTU bred by Petr Malek  and MTU bred by Frantisek Bacovsky (in section Gallery ==> Mecynorhina ugandensis). An example from one of my own breeding groups is pictured below.

A crappy picture of one of my breeding groups

Anno 2018 MTU is considered one of the true classics within beetle breeding, especially in Europe. The internet is full of information on how to breed these animals and how to achieve major adults. In the following text I therefore don't discuss the general breeding methods for this species, they can be found elsewhere in great detail. To avoid my mail getting spammed with beginner questions, I here summarise the most basic tips to achieve big adults (not obligatory to breed the species, but helpful to achieve giants):

• Do not use leaf-based substrate. Use (protein-enriched) flakesoil or use the peat and wood method.
• Use big amounts of white rotten wood. Mulch it as fine as possible.
• Supplement protein from L2 stage and do so on a regular basis. In order to avoid mite infestations use gammarus or koi-food. Also relating to mites: keep the substrate rather dry and airy.
• Opt for cylindrical breeding boxes. The bigger the size of the box the better the result.
• Good results have been reported when using a rather low but stable temperature of 18-19°C. Development will evidently take longer using these lower temperatures.
• Reduce the humidity of the substrate during pupation, as is advised with most of the species within the Mecynorhina genus.

2 Larval cannibalism?

Mid L3 Mecynorhina Torquata Ugandensis larva

Rumour has it that the larvae of this species are cannibalistic. Many beginners are often anxious about this behaviour. In my personal breedings however I have never encountered a significant loss due to cannibalism. The larvae do tend to get aggressive and hunt down smaller larvae, and will as an L3 eat L1's of it's own species. This is only a problem when you mix up several breeding groups that are not synchronised to each other. Thus by a bit of planning the problem of cannibalism can be easily overcome. Of course their is always the basic need of providing enough substrate of good quality and in sufficient amounts. If this need is not met, cannibalism might just happen. Don't let it come that far ;).

Housing larvae separately is of course the best protection against cannibalism, but when handling large breeding groups this method can become very intensive to manage. The choice to separate or house communally is up to the breeder.

*Other Mecynorhina species, like Mecynorhina (Megalorhina) harissi and Mecynorhina (Chelorrhina) polyphemus, are well known for their carnivorous behaviour. These should always be kept separately!*

3 Future projections: Cyborgs

Adult Mecynorhina beetles are exceptionally strong, those who have handled the beetles surely know. A group of scientist from Signapore also noticed this and had a creative idea in using this strength for a new technological development. Using a small battery with electrodes connected to the beetle's leg and flight muscles, they created beetle cyborgs. The beetles can walk and fly by use of console controllers. 

The innovation started a big discussion in the entomologic society. The news made it even into mainstream media where it also sparked a discussion about the ethical perspectives of the invention.
The scientist doing the research did this because they wanted to better society. The beetles are hardy, relatively small and need only little food for a very long time of activity. This makes them very suitable to aid in natural disasters. The beetle can crawl practically anywhere and cary small camera gear  and heat sensors to find survivors in destroyed buildings. When a beetle finds signs of life, it can be tracked down with GPS to an exact location. With modern drones this can be done too, but these are very reliant on electricity. In disaster situations this forms a problem. Furthermore beetles are very well designed to climb and fly, and can do this faster and better than modern day drones and robots.

 Also the scientist wish to test cyborg technology on animals as trial to use it on humans when the technology is better developed. If this technology does get better this might be a huge step forward in the fight against neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Many people considered this cyborg research as a slippery slope. They fear that this inventions will only increase man's dominance over the animal kingdom. Others took the discussion the the human race and feared that cyborg technology will be used in harmful ways. Indeed there are rumours that US military is doing research to use the same technology in the military, which of course is not beneficial to anyone except some greedy assholes who live of someone else's suffering! 

The discussion has been very diverse and interesting, and I hope that it can keep on happening this way. 

Here's a video about the experiments, let me know what your opinion on this is in the comment section.

A cyborg beetle

4 Future projections: Genetic studies (only for the ambitious! )

For all the recreational readers, here it ends for you. For the entomology/biology freaks, time to fasten up your seatbelts! In this section I will discuss a very important idea about breeding polychromatic species, with MTU being the most relevant beetle species at hand. I will try explain an experiment, for which I am looking for some co-breeders who want to help me out on this. First comes the theory, later on some more practical guidelines.

4.1 Theory:

The basics of evolution theory and genetic research find their basis in research during the 1800's. One of the primary examples of this research is the work of Gregor Mendel (1822-1884). In the monastery where he lived, Mendel performed experiments on heredity of morphological traits, using beans. By personally pollinating bean plants and documenting the traits of the offspring he proved that some traits are dominant and others recessive. He discovered a basic law about how genes (which weren't even discovered back then) where transmitted over generations. Ever since these laws of nature are called the Mendelian laws of inheritance.

Unknowingly, humans have been operating these laws to select better crops, better lifestock and better pets. 

Selection on Mendelian traits in the pet industry are everywhere, but tehy are best documented in reptiles. The most relevant example of this is the breeding of Python regius, the king- or ballpython. The species is very popular because of it's gentle nature and relatively easy care. The normal form looks like this:

From the beginning of it's career in the pet industry, it was noticed that some of the ballpythons had some anomalies. Some had brighter or darker colours, different stripe patterns etc. When breeding took place, it was confirmed that some of these traits adhered to Mendelian laws. The offspring expressing recessive (or dominant -cool looking- ) traits were sold at higher prices, and enjoyed a very high popularity. This gave a kickstart to obtain rare mutants, even pythons expressing multiple recessive genes. These could be achieved by crossing abnormal pythons, or by purchasing wild pythons expressing anomalies. African collectors were payed enormous amounts of money if they could catch and export a snake with an abnormal pattern.

It did only take a couple of years for rare mutants, for example blue eyed albino's, to sell for thousands of dollars. Of course money was not the primary motivation for these breedings, but the ambition to create an extraordinary looking animal was. This goal has been achieved, and is still being chased. Here are some examples of some splendid multi-recessive ballpythons:

Notice that anatomically, this is the same snake as the one pictured earlier.

Every gene is named and tested for it's dominance. The animals lay somewhere between 4 and 12 eggs. This is about the perfect group size to prove genetic traits. It makes the mathematics involving Mendelian inheritance very easy. Calculating the chances of a certain gene to express made it possible to assess how rare a certain morph of the animal is. Again, more rare morphs enjoy better popularity and sell for better prices. The competition/ambition to create a rare combination of genes makes this pet work well, both from recreative and economical perspective. The race for rare morphs has been the major drive behind the huge success of Python regius. 

Now back to our beloved beetle: Mecynorhina torquata ugandensis. As described earlier, this species exhibits a wide array of appearances. Not only in colour, but also in markings on the pronotum and elytrae, specimens differ completely. However different variants are named and priced alike. The only exception would be blue MTU, which is priced higher than other colours. The blue colorline is however, not extremely hard to attain in a bloodline.
In my humble opinion it is a missed chance that there are so few people willing to document their breeding thoroughly, in a way that it is possible to assess the genetic makeup of a certain beetle. Doing this would offer beetle breeders many advantages. We would be able to asses which beetles/traits are rare and wich are easy to attain. When this is assessed we can start crossing over rare forms and even attain morphs which have seldom been seen, or even create entirely new ones. Also the hunt for good genes would make crossing over different bloodlines much more common, in this way benefiting the genetic pool of European breedings.

I aspire to set up a big scale experiment to prove certain genes within MTU. This is something I cannot do on my own, and I hope this blogpost will motivate co-breeders to help me in this experiment. 
How? Read along :).

4.2 Practical guidelines

When studying Mendelian inheritance in beetles a couple of criteria need to be accounted for (theoretically).
- The female of a certain beetle shouldn't have mated before, as this would render the experiment unreliable.
- The appearance of the parents should be well documented and coded.
- Preferably, a single male should mate with several different females.
- ALL offspring should be raised to adulthood.
- Losses during larval or pupal stage must be documented.
- The adult offspring should be thoroughly documented and given codes.
- Offspring of the second (CB1) generation that heavily resemble the first generation (CB0) should be mated again with each other. Again all offspring should be raised to adulthood.

If this scheme is followed, it should be possible to prove certain genetic traits in this magnificent species. Since female MTU manage to produce as much as 70 eggs (About 40 on average) this experiment can become relatively big. Therefore I am looking for fellow breeders who wish to participate in this experiment. The plan would be to send a male around who would copulate a total of 4 to 5 different females.
As it is of great importance that all larvae are raised to adulthood with minimal losses, I hope to assemble 2-3 experienced breeders in western Europe to join me. Please do attend to the fact that this will take a multi-year devotion!
If all works out well we could collectively submit a paper to some (easy access) entomologic journals.

If you think you are experienced enough to join, please contact me in the comments or send me your email-address via private message. I have been studying and orienting on this subject for more than a year, and can't wait to start the study next year.


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