Stag Beetles Wanted

[Hopeinthedark]

I'm looking for a couple of adult stag beetles, ideally Lucanus cervus but would consider others

If you can help please pm me
Cheers, Andrea

[stienbabe]

Lucanus cervus is a protected species and cannot be bought, sold or traded. There are plenty of other similar stag beetle species available in the trade but this is not one of them. They are spectacularly unsuitable for keeping anyway as they spend anything up to 6 years as a grub and then only 8-12 weeks as an adult.

[Hopeinthedark]

Ok, thanks, didn't know that! What species are similar in appearance but more suited to keeping?

[stienbabe]

It's not terrifically easy to find stag beetles or grubs for sale in this country - mostly because they're just not as popular as the cetoniidae. There is a shop in Germany with quite a nice selection at The Pet Factory but for the best choice you really end up having to import from Taiwan. There is an excellent supplier there who I have used several times and is very reliable although you generally have to spend a bit of time Googling the species as the website hasn't got many pictures. Their addy is Kingdom of Beetle Taiwan-we sell high quality Breeding materials and Popular beetle. It may seem a bit daunting ordering from so far away, but that's where everyone is getting their stock from one way or another. Tarantulabarn often has a few nice species in, but they are on sabbatical at the moment unfortunately.

[Hopeinthedark]

Brilliant, thanks for your help. I'll look into those two companies, fingers crossed!