Guarding his Woman, Part 2 - _TNY_8226

Here is a female timberman beetle (Acanthocinus aedilis) in the process of depositing her eggs underneath the bark on a recently felled pine tree near lake Stensjön in the Tyresta National Park, Sweden.

 

Next to her, the larger male is keeping a careful eye on her progress.

 

As I was watching these two, a second male actually showed up and tried to make a move on this lady which turned into a short fight where this male quickly chased the new suitor away.

 

Two shots of that can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48906462242/

 

and here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51199363230/

 

These belong to the longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) and if you look at the other picture it is easy to see why they came up with this name - timberman beetles probably have the longest "horns" of all.

 

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/50791729858/

 

For a shot which really shows how amazingly long the antennae are, have a look here for one of the males on my hand: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52814260227/

Done