Yesterday I opened the rearing container to find an eclosed adult that had clawed its way out of its pupal shell and up to the surface. It was covered with mites. I wondered if all the beetles had mites in their pupal shells with them or if most climbed aboard after eclosure. I wanted to find out, so I opened all the remaining pupal shells, extracting pupae, pale just-eclosed beetles, and fully darkened adults waiting for some internal or environmental signal before freeing themselves. All had some mites on them, but some, mainly females I think, had very few mites. As such, they will be good photo subjects.

I washed all the pupae in lukewarm tap water and placed them in numbered cubicles on a moist scrap of paper towel. I did the same with the pale, just-eclosed adults. The more mature adults I washed and placed together in stackable leftover containers with perforated lids that I've been using quite a bit lately. Some I placed in my light arena for a preliminary group shot.

Here is a healthy beetle eclosing in its plastic cubicle, flanked by two older (though still very recent) adults.