Hi all,
I was clearing some weedy (read: dollar weed) space in the back today and turned up this thing and another thing I'll post in a second posting. Don't know whether to keep 'em or kill 'em or move 'em :)
Thanks,
-Sunny
What is this?
My stars!! How big is that "thing"?? It kind of looks like a tick of some sort, but who knows? Yikes!! Good luck with that!!
It's about as big as the first joint on my thumb - it's not small. And it has no eyes.
I think it's a beetle. Maybe a female... thank goodness it's not the male with the big horn!
Per Google search: Hercules beetles belong to the scarab family, Scarabaeidae. Smaller Hercules beetles can be found farther north in North America. The eastern Hercules beetle, Dynastes tityus, can be found from New Jersey to Pennsylvania and west to Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. They are greenish with dark spots. The southwestern Hercules beetle, Dynastes granti, is darker in color and has longer horns. They live in the southwestern part of the United States, mostly in Arizona. sharon
This message was edited Aug 6, 2006 6:21 PM
Poor critter. If you don't like him, move him away. He is kind of cute!
Wow, lovely bugs!
It looks like the molted skin from a juvenile cicada - the way the eyes are set on the side of the head.
Well, after searching an excess of 300,000 beetle pictures, I didn't find anything looking like him. However, taking hcmcdoles's advice, I did check the 'net for juvenile cicada's, and ding ding ding...we have a winner! We put the guy back in the ground after determining what he was. Apparently, cicada nymphs stay underground for as little as 2 years and as long as 17 years, depending on what type they are. They eat the sap from trees (we found him near the roots of our Granny Smith apple tree).
So, now we all know more about cicada's than we really needed to know ;)
Thanks for the help!
-Sunny
that is sooo interesting!
I just found one similar but I thyink it is empty.
I keep finding them all over the place - empty. Tonight I was reading the bug forum and learned quite a bit about cicadas. Apparently they have been spotted everywhere.