Day 53 - Beetlemania 2025

 My Beetle post of 2024 CHAFERS AND SCARABS, WEEVILS AND JEWELS when I learnt to value those beetles that one ignores. in general.

From last year and I quote myself. 😆😆 - "40% of insects are beetles, and these include those weevils that ate up my Kabuli channa last week - so well did they burrow and munch that all that was left was skeletal remains.  (Never mind that I was banking on the said channa to feed some guests, and alternate emergency Plan B menus had to be thought of.)  

Beetles are prehistoric survivors, crawling around even before dinosaurs stomped the earth, and from what I understood one of the secrets to their longevity on the planet is the hard elytra which keeps them safe from fungal and other attacks.  "

My Beetlemania 2024 Limerick

Braided Tiger Beetle (Lophyra catena) Isn't it beautiful?  A fascinating little predator.   catena means "chain" in Latin — referring to the braid-like chain patterns on its wing covers (elytra).

The colours!  Iridescence here and there. Check out the long legs, bulging eyes, and sickle-shaped mandibles – perfectly designed for speed and hunting.  

They scoot around real fast, and are quite tiny actually - maybe just between 1-2 cms, and they are so well camouflaged with the sand, you are likely to miss it.  I saw these ones last month along the Adyar river, thanks to the location tip given by Sagarika, and I closely scanned the ground for them, else I would have missed them for sure.

Now despite their small size, they are fierce hunters, going after ants and flies and such like.  Their speed is their forte, maybe they should've been named as cheetah beetles.  😏

I am glad to have seen these beetles this year, as they are good indicators of the quality of the habitat.  I read that many a time - the presence of these beetles is monitored - like a flagship of diversity and healthy habitats.  So yay, let's hope they continue to thrive on the sandy banks of the Adyar river.

My eight 2025 beetle additions!  ( I have seen 19 types of beetles overall- but my pal Sagarika has spotted and photographed and identified 77 species - all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes!). 

So I saw - 

Two Darkling Beetles - the left most one  in row one, and the right most one in row 2.  They do look similar don't they?They are generally dull coloured.  These two were close to the verandah light, and were on the walls - quite removed from their habitat of the ground.  Both generally break down fallen leaves, and are busy detrivores.  The first one- is also called Maple beetle and is a bit infamous in Kerala rubber plantations - they generally migrate into homes by the millions it seems, in the dry season.  

The Mealybug destroyer - is a ladybird beetle - really tiny - kutty and gundu - and feeds on those mealybugs.  I need a few for my mealy-bug infested vendakka.  Natural pest controller.  This one we saw in Gandhinagar.

The Jewel Beetle - the dead one on the palm - is a pretty jewel when alive - lovely shimmering metallic green, with two red spots.

Then I should mention the ground beetle we saw.  the one burrowing into the ground with only half butt exposed was alive, and the other one was sadly dead.  These ground beetles have a solid defence mechanism of squirting out pretty noxious secretions in defence.  I was quite excited with our spotting thanks to Hrishu.  

The most infamous of the lot is the bombardier beetle.  Look it up!

Charles Darwin and the bombardier beetle is one of those delightful natural history anecdotes that has grown into a kind of legend among entomologists. I read it for the first time today!

In his student days in Cambridge, he was a passionate and avid beetle collector and would have collecting boxes in his pocket to put them in.  One day he actually spotted 3 beetles at one go.  He already had one beetle in each hand… but then he noticed a third, rarer beetle he absolutely didn’t want to miss.  And guess what - he decided to pop one in his mouth trying to hold it with his teeth!  Needless to say it didnt end very well, as the one in the mouth was a bombardier beetle!!

"under a piece of bark I found two carabi (I forget which) & caught one in each hand, when lo & behold I saw a sacred Panagæus crux major; I could not bear to give up either of my Carabi, & to lose Panagæus was out of the question, so that in despair I gently seized one of the carabi between my teeth, when to my unspeakable disgust & pain the little inconsiderate beast squirted his acid down my throat & I lost both Carabi & Panagæus!"  (Source:  Wikipedia - Charles Darwin (1846). "Letter to Leonard Jenyns, October 17, 1846".)

So the moral of the story is please do not put live Ground Beetles in your mouth.  That bombardier beetle, with its chemical cannon, is aptly named I thought.

The whole chemistry of this beetle is pretty astonishing.  ILS AND JEWELS

Whatever next?!