Biting Power - _TNY_9630
This evening, I walked by one of the water barrels in the garden and noticed something moving on the surface.
That something turned out to be a very black beetle so I put my hand down in the water next to it and it eagerly climbed up on my finger.
That's when I noticed the spectacular pair of mandibles on it which at first it was trying to sink into my finger - but then decided against it and instead raised it's head.
Thankful for this, I set it down on a piece of wood and began trying to figure out what it was.
While I figured out that this is a longhorn beetle known as the black longicorn beetle (Spondylis buprestoides), it stayed completely still there for me so I could experiment a bit with how to photograph it.
The shiny and black armour really sucked in all the light so it took a while before I had shots showing more than just a black hole.
If you zoom in on it you'll notice that there are a couple of very small little somethings on its head and even on one of the mandibles. These are springtails (Collembola sp.) which aren't in any way parasitizing on the beetle. They were most likely stuck in the water as well and climbed onto the beetle to get out of there.
Biting Power - _TNY_9630
This evening, I walked by one of the water barrels in the garden and noticed something moving on the surface.
That something turned out to be a very black beetle so I put my hand down in the water next to it and it eagerly climbed up on my finger.
That's when I noticed the spectacular pair of mandibles on it which at first it was trying to sink into my finger - but then decided against it and instead raised it's head.
Thankful for this, I set it down on a piece of wood and began trying to figure out what it was.
While I figured out that this is a longhorn beetle known as the black longicorn beetle (Spondylis buprestoides), it stayed completely still there for me so I could experiment a bit with how to photograph it.
The shiny and black armour really sucked in all the light so it took a while before I had shots showing more than just a black hole.
If you zoom in on it you'll notice that there are a couple of very small little somethings on its head and even on one of the mandibles. These are springtails (Collembola sp.) which aren't in any way parasitizing on the beetle. They were most likely stuck in the water as well and climbed onto the beetle to get out of there.