Broad-necked Root Borer
“He’s dead, Jim.”
Unfortunately, this giant* beetle had passed on before I got to it, but left a beautiful corpse. I know it’s not common to see a dead bug on this site, but David said that I was in charge of the days that I update, and so you see this dead bug because it’s large and interesting to look at. Rest assured it died of natural causes. Probably.
The research on this was pretty cool, really, and I learned a lot. First, when I read the name I tried to imagine one of these huge bugs burrowing through the ground to find a root**, but couldn’t imagine how they’d do it. Then, I learned that it’s the larvae that eat the roots by burrowing through the tree down to the tasty bits. Okay, that makes sense.
Reading on, I learned that these beetles, as they mature, move up the tree and begin living in the foliage. After a few minutes of thinking about this, I slowly stood up from under the tree, picked up my wireless laptop, and moved back to the patio. I’m okay with bugs, and have generally gotten over my tendency to utterly freak out if they land on me, but I can’t imagine I’d be serene and calm if one of these suddenly fell from above to land in my lap. I’d imagine, in fact, that that would be one beetle that didn’t die of natural causes.
*Okay, maybe not as big as this bug, but big for a North Delawarean bug at about two inches long!
**Where it would then read it the dictionary, which is very Boring.
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.
Parkway said,
August 7, 2008 @ 7:41 am
Nice photo - evenly lit, everything in focus, just a little bit of reflection off the dead bug.
I guess not having to worry about it moving made the shot a little easier?
JFargo said,
August 7, 2008 @ 7:52 am
*chuckles* You’d be surprised at how I can mess up what should be an easy shot. My camera wanted to focus on the grass that was sticking up around it, so I had to flatten it out. Then, the flash was too bright because I was too close. Then, my dog wanted to see what I was doing and got her muzzle in a few shots.
I’ve often said that my key to good photography is taking LOTS of pictures, even when it’s a still-life shot. Heh.
tceisele said,
August 7, 2008 @ 2:52 pm
Actually, I’ve heard professional photographers say the same thing - the biggest single factor in getting good photographs is to take a few hundred pictures as many ways as you can in hopes of getting a couple of really good ones. Which, in the pre-digital days, was prohibitively expensive for the hobbyist. Some years ago, I tried taking pictures of insects with my old 35 mm SLR film camera, but gave it up when it was obvious that film and developing costs were going to eat me alive. Now, with a digital camera, I can take 50 to 100 pictures of each bug, keep 3, and not feel bad about ditching the others.
Andrew said,
August 7, 2008 @ 4:49 pm
Completely unrelated: I checked the InsectPOD RSS feed this morning, saw the post was by JFargo, and said to myself “must be Thursday.” Is this happening to anyone else?
JFargo said,
August 7, 2008 @ 6:14 pm
@Andrew - Well, I’m hoping the actual thought is “Yay! Must be Thursday!”
@tceisele - I’m really glad I started getting into the whole “digital photography” thing for that exact reason. Also, I’m weird and like taking pictures of odd things (signs, for example, that have nothing really special about them). If I were using film to do that, I’d feel as though I was wasting it.
Brian L. said,
August 8, 2008 @ 10:10 pm
*groans at the second footnote*
horrible, absolutely horrible pun.
heh.
Nice shot though!