Anyway, I went out exploring this weekend with some friends. We were busily flipping over logs, looking for salamanders, which we found and I will blog about later. But, during our salamander quest, we found two very cool species of beetles. Both were big, shiny and black and I was pretty excited with each find. It was like Christmas for me, without the mess of wrapping paper.
Look at that whopper. It was almost an inch and a half long. This is a Blue-margined Ground Beetle, Pasimachus depressus . This one is shiny, so it is a male. The females are more dull in color. It is completely edged in violet-blue, like someone had painted it. It was under a rock, minding its own business until I picked it up. It gave off a mediciney odor, but it did not even try to bite. This beetle likes to snack on caterpillars. (This photo and the next one is by John Howard.)
We continued on our quest until my friend John Howard turned over another log and found this beetle family, Odontotaenius disjunctus. These have a couple of accepted common names. Horned Passalus is one. Another is Patent Leather Beetle, which reminds me of the shiny black patent leather shoes I had to wear to church and grandma's. I hated those shoes. They were hot, uncomfortable and I was forbidden to go exploring when I was wearing them. Of course, I did anyway. . . :)
This beetle can make up to fourteen different sounds. It communicates by rubbing various body parts together called stridulation. They also make these noises when disturbed. Ours didn't make any noise that I can remember. Notice the brown ones in the photo. These are the younger beetles. They stay together under logs in colonies and the adults will prechew wood for the larvae to eat. Their main food is rotting wood, but the larvae will also eat dung.
You never know what you will find until you flip over a log. Hopefully you will get out this fall and make a few new discoveries!
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