Description

The cactus longhorn beetle is a specialist feeder on cholla and prickly pear pads. This listing is for the larvae. This is the immature, grub-like stage.

You can purchase the pads at local Mexican grocery stores and some larger chain grocery stores. They are also rather affordable on Ebay, Etsy and Amazon. The living plant pads can be stored in the freezer for many weeks and you just cut a little piece off for the beetles or just set an entire pad in the tank. Both larvae and adults eat the same food, making this one of the easiest pet beetles to reproduce.

Available unsexed LARVAE only. Limit 6 per customer. $10 each.

This listing is for a beetle larva in the genus Moneilema. The video below shows how easy it is to get adults to deposit eggs in a sand-based substrate. Both larvae and adults eat the same prickly pear pads. The specimens like to have some decor on top of the substrate like cholla wood (sold separately) to help them more easily traverse loose sand.

Here is a video from my YouTube Channel. The tank of course does not need to be this elaborate.