Red Flour Beetle Maintenance

From 9-11-14.

Checked on my colony of red flour beetles (RFB). It has been 270 days (8 months, 28 days) since the last time the RFB had their food source changed. I have not checked on them since then. I varied the type of flour they were provided and observed some interesting results.

There were three different treatment groups in this "experiment". RFB were provided either corn flour, wheat flour, or a 50:50 mix of both. Treatments were in quadruplicate in glass masons jars with a cheese cloth cover. The jars were incubated at room temperature in a box protected from light for the 270 days. There were about 200 - 300 RFB per jar.

Live RFB that are being transferred

After 270 days, all of the RFB in all four of the corn flour treatment groups were completely dead. All of the wheat flour treatment group RFB were alive and well. And two of the four jars in the 50:50 mix treatment group were completely dead and the other two were alive and well.

Live RFB that are being transferred

Results:

Treatment	replicates	After 270 days
Corn Flour	4	All 4 dead
Wheat Flour	4	All 4 alive
50:50 Mix	4	half (2) jars dead

Dead RFB in the corn flour treatment group

Discussion:

It would appear that the RFB do not do well with only being provided the corn flour as a long term food source. All of the 200 - 300 RFB in the four replicate groups in the corn flour treatment group were completely dead; not moving, some upside down. Perhaps it was the nutrient difference in the corn flower that lead to the death of the RFB in this treatment group. Or perhaps the RFB utilized the nutrient source more quickly than in the other treatment groups. It appeared that the number of dead RFB was relatively equivalent to what was initially put into the jars.

The RFB seemed to do very well on the wheat flour after the extended period of time. All of the replicates had lively and active RFB in them. What is most interesting is that half of the replicates in the 50:50 mix group were completely dead. It is interesting since half the contents of the 50:50 mix (the corn flour) was related to the death of their entire treatment group!

The RFB from the wheat flour treatment group were transferred to fresh wheat flour in the mason jars. Of the two jars that had surviving RFB in the 50:50 mix treatment group, half were transferred to two jars containing the 50:50 mix again, and the other half were transferred to two jars containing corn flour only. It would be interesting to see if by exposing the RFB to the 50:50 corn:wheat flour mix that they can now survive on the corn flour only diet. I'll check the survival of the RFB from time-to-time (hopefully sooner than 270 days from now).

//EWW