Fiery Hunter Beetle
We found this large, handsome beetle under one of the “snake sheets”[1] on June 26, 2016.
The gold spots on the wing covers are quite pretty.
Even though the mandibles are large, scary-looking, and clearly designed for preying on other small animals, I didn’t have any problems with it trying to bite me.
It was also very fast and quite strong, so it took some effort to keep it still enough for pictures.
This is most likely a repeat of a species that I first posted way back in May 2007. And then, I think I posted the same species again in April 2014, although that one had red spots on the wings instead of gold spots. Anyway, I’m pretty sure it is the Fiery Hunter, Callisthenes calidus, a noted predator of caterpillars, slugs, and all manner of other things that live under rocks. These are definitely the sort of thing you want to have in the garden. They are a native species, but they are pretty adept at devouring a lot of the invasive pests that we so often have to deal with.
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[1] We have a number of black rubber floor mats (the kind that are used in cars) placed out in the back yard. Snakes love to crawl under these, because they are warm, and protected, and draw a lot of the small creatures that snakes like to eat. So, pretty much any time we have a desire to see snakes, we just go out and look under a mat, and most of the time they are there.
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Ooh, it’s the legendary Mancala Beetle!