While birding at the Head of the Plains, which is composed of rare sandplain grassland habitat, I found this. It's the covering of a beetle's wings, the elytra. Our guide wasn't sure that kind of beetle it belonged to.
But, a couple of days later, walking along the bike path that runs along Cliff Road by the old Tuppency Links, I came across about twenty of these bad boys over a distace of about 150 yards. All but one were dead, some were crushed, a few were crawling with ants. The glossy bodies really stuck out in the morning sun.
Most were in fairly good shape. It's the depth-of-field that sucks. Note the baby rhinoceros look. My fingers give you some sense of scale. These were just over an inch long, and full-bodied.
They seem to be a species of the
Strategus genus, in the scarab beetle family. There were no other dead bugs on the bike path; I wonder why there were so many of these?
While birding at the Head of the Plains, which is composed of rare sandplain grassland habitat, I found this. It's the covering of a beetle's wings, the elytra. Our guide wasn't sure that kind of beetle it belonged to. 
But, a couple of days later, walking along the bike path that runs along Cliff Road by the old Tuppency Links, I came across about twenty of these bad boys over a distace of about 150 yards. All but one were dead, some were crushed, a few were crawling with ants. The glossy bodies really stuck out in the morning sun.
Most were in fairly good shape. It's the depth-of-field that sucks. Note the baby rhinoceros look. My fingers give you some sense of scale. These were just over an inch long, and full-bodied.
They seem to be a species of the Strategus genus, in the scarab beetle family. There were no other dead bugs on the bike path; I wonder why there were so many of these?
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Morning light illuminating the syruppy beetle shell - has it ever looked so good? Skittering clicks and clacks of approval from this quadrant.
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