Insect Picture of the Day

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Everybody give a warm welcome to Rich Jakiel, who debuts here today with a great picture and an even better story. I admit that I am biased: I love science stories. And Rich’s science is the best kind of science story.

If I tell you the name of a bug, you get a word for it, but what do you really know about the bug? Nothing but a word. Worse, you might now think that you know all about the bug, and you miss out on all kinds of fascinating knowledge: how it looks, how it behaves, how it interacts with its environment. You miss out on things like “what is this bug trying to do right now, and why do you think it’s doing that?” You miss out on all kind of interaction behaviors, like “what happens if I do this?” And most importantly, you miss out on the opportunity to ask questions and then seek the answers, which is the ultimate building block of science, really.

The awesome thing about this question process is that you and I formulate different questions. This stag beetle is about 4cm long–nearly an inch and a half. I look at it and wonder “can it fly?” You might look at it and ask, “is it aggressive or defensive when I get near it?”

Not Rich. Rich took one look at those pincers and asked, “how hard can they pinch?” Here’s his own account of the story:

I put my finger between the mandibles and he decided to attack. The stag beetle latched on and bit the [censored] out of me. It sunk those needle-like mandibles a good 1/8″ or more and drew copious amount of blood. It was like a bug bulldog and wouldn’t let go.

Rich’s full account is here (Warning: strong language).

Thank you, Rich. Great picture, and AWESOME Science Story!

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Here’s Steve Jackson’s beetle again, this time viewed from the side.

A few people wrote in to say that they were surprised to hear that scarabs appear in the U.S. I did a little digging, and it turns out that there are about 1,375 species in the U.S. in family Scarabaeidae.

It appears that males are divided into two categories: smaller “minor” males and larger “major” males. Major males of Strategus aloeus can reach 6cm in length–nearly double the size of this beetle! The division seems to be related to the amount of nutrition provided to the developing young; only the largest larvae will develop into major males so it is essential that the larvae receive as much food as possible–and that the larvae wait until all the food in the brood ball has been consumed before pupating.

This male may have been reared on a smaller brood ball, or he may have received fewer and/or smaller feedings as a larva. In dung beetles (another scarab), if the female rears the brood alone, only large females are physically capable of ferrying enough provender to her larvae to rear a major son. Ashlee L. Child has written a paper about major and minor development as a result of nutrition and brood care. Check it out.

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Reader Steve Jackson sends us this picture from Austin, Texas. He has this to say about him:

“I found this guy (??) behind my home (Austin, Texas) on August 18. A bit of net research makes it a scarab - Strategus for sure, probably Strategus aloeus - but if it’s a minor male it’s underdeveloped and if it’s a female it has an atypically big horn. I kept it for a few days to show to people who didn’t realize we had any native beetles bigger than a June bug, and then put it back where I found it. It was very deliberate in its movements and did not try to fly away.

I didn’t measure it at the time, but a measurement of my thumb, which hasn’t changed much since the picture was taken, leads to a reliable estimate of 37mm from tip of abdomen to tip of “snout.”

The camera was a Canon PowerShot SD550 held in the hand that didn’t have a bug on it.”

I did some digging and discovered that this is indeed a male Strategus aloeus. The horn is smallish for the species but the bug is otherwise quite typical.

I just want to say that getting to introduce Steve Jackson (yes, THAT Steve Jackson) as “Reader Steve Jackson” makes me incredibly happy. I met Steve at a convention a few years ago, and because I was hanging out with Howard Tayler, I got to spend the day with him, including getting a tour of Warehouse 23. Steve is even cooler in person than he is online.