The softer wood can be used for rhino beetle substrate and for oviposition of majority stag beetles such as lucanus, although the 'just soft' wood could be also good for the some other stag beetles such as dorcus or phalacrognathus.

This wood is usually the result of part of the tree being damaged by fungi and in such wood the most of the lignin is destroyed either by fungal and/or bacterial activity. The soft wood is that kind that you can easily brake and crumble it with your hands, the 'just soft' wood is that kind that it is difficult to brake it with your bare hands, but it would be very easy to hammer the nail in.

This is normally pure rotten wood from hardwood trees (oak or beech are always preferred), which ranges from soft white to brownish/black in colour and either soft or just soft, but not hard wood. This substrate is also used by many breeders for raising larvae of some rhino beetles, particularly of megasoma ssp. Some beetles such as goliath beetles, starting from L2 stage require mainly high protein food, and almost do not consume any other substrate. This substrate is good for any flower beetle larvae, although some species may require some additional protein supplement during their later stages, e.g. The presence of soil in such substrate could help distributing the moisture and developing of the beneficial bacteria, particularly if a container with larvae is not very deep. In such substrate, hard parts of leaves are pre-digested by microorganisms. The leaves should be well decayed, not freshly fallen, preferably at least 1 year old. This substrate normally consists of a lower layer of partially disintegrated decayed leaves which could be mixed with some woodland top soil (humus). The males of the rose chafers, as many other flower beetles, have a distinct 'invagination' on their abdomen, which often appears longitudinally divided (please see the photo below) About 2 month ago these larvae pupated all together and later emerged as 5 beautiful rose chafers, 2 females and 3 males, which seems almost a perfect ratio! I made and break with these species about couple years ago but it seems that I will be starting with them again. However, I decided to keep these 5 larvae and put them in the box with some decayed leaves. We have plenty of summer chafers ( amphimallon solstitiale) flying in spring and summer in our garden, so automatically I assumed that these are the larvae of this species. This spring I was digging soil for the tomato patch and discovered 5 larvae similar to appearance to rose chafer larvae. This used substrate apart from larvae's frass still contained a significant part of uneaten material such as rotten wood and decayed leaves. I normally remove quite a lot of the used beetle larvae substrate from my boxes and I usually 'discard' it into the vegetable patch in our back garden.

Rhinoceros beetle larvae images