My sister decided to stain the front porch today (at night). With porch lights on as well as two indoor stand lights, she's a bright beacon for mosquitos and other insects to navigate towards. Suddenly, a large bug hit her back. Aaggh!
It turned out to be a ten-lined June beetle. She immediately called me over to take a look (since I like interesting bugs). I took some pictures to show you.
It's a greenish brown colour on the shell with cream stripes with dark outlines.
The antennae are a lovely reddish brown colour and very large.
It is also called a Watermelon Beetle, probaby due to its watermelon-like appearance.
I think it was stunned from crashing into my sister, or maybe my flash blinded him. Either way, he stayed put for the photos.
I took a few more pics and went away. Suddenly, my sister called me again. "Oh no!" she cried. "Something terrible happened! I was painting and I stepped back when I heard a CRUNCH!"
Oh no... The beetle had moved to the middle of the porch. It was still alive, but it was leaking. Ugh... I folded a little paper box and put him inside of it.
Now the paper box is sitting on my succulent plants. I wanted to give him the chance to fly away in case he survives. I am not so sure he will though. He was leaking a lot from the back.
Poor, poor beetle!
3 comments:
I didn't realize you had those bugs over there! I hadn't seen them until moving out East...
If they're the same ones, they're kind of "dumb" - if they fly towards the light, and you switch them off suddenly, they'll just go fall straight onto the ground (you can hear them)
That is very unfortunate, Em! They sound... accident prone. That only strengthens my soft-spot for these watermelon-like beetles :)
Aaaaw, poor chap.
Post a Comment