Can Largus "Bordered Plant Bugs" be used as feeders?

[yoteango]

I'm currently in a dangerous phase where I want to collect all the different types of potential feeders. It's a good thing it's winter, or I'd have a cage full of random porch-light moths in my living room. Anyways -

On Bug Guide's "Rearing Wild Insects" forum there's a recent one for Raising Largus succinctus (Hemiptera: Largidae) from Egg to Adult. I've seen some kind, probably Largus californicus, in my yard recently and am wondering if they'd be fine to feed to my chameleon, either wild caught, or bred or both. Attached image is from my yard, but from the summer.

 

[JacksJill]

Anything that colorful is suspect. Get a solid answer somewhere before you proceed.

 

[yoteango]

Looks like the solid answer is "no".

Anything that colorful is suspect. Get a solid answer somewhere before you proceed.

The answer I got was "Booth suggests that they are at least distasteful to some lizards, and the aposematic colouring likely serves as a warning."

Based on the relevant quote "Results of predation tests with two species of captive lizards from two locations were as follows. Responses of eight western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis) from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) where there are no L. californicus, suggested that the lizards find L. californicus distasteful. When offered fourth instars, fifth instars, or adults for the first time, six of eight lizards attacked but immediately spit the bug out and wiped their mouths in the sand. They would not attack another bug of the same stage for up to 8 days afterward, even though they were hungry and readily ate mealworms. One lizard attacked a male a second time, 56 days after the first attack with no exposure to bugs in between tests. Five of nine bugs attacked survived. Eight of nine U. stansburiana from SCI that live in close proximity to the bugs would not attack nymphs or adults offered in captivity, though they readily ate mealworms offered"

The same paper also describes how they were using a lab culture with standard grocery items, so it wasn't like they had a diet of toxic plants or anything.

So yeah,
I think I'll pass on these guys.

Hopefully this answers the question well enough for when somebody else inevitably has it in the future.

 

[JacksJill]

Thanks for sharing your research.

 

[Chino82]

If you want to narrow down your list of potential feeders, here is a good article on a study done to see what wild chameleon diet consists of.

https://www.madcham.de/en/chamaeleonfutter/