I went out to empty my compost bucket and spotted this fearsome looking character waving his rather excessive mandibles in my direction. Not being one to ignore such a gesture, I emptied my compost bucket, found a little twig and scooped the ferocious fellow into my bucket so that I could take it inside for a closer look and to photograph it.
It is a Carabid or Ground Beetle, it is one of the three species of Scarites that occur in the US, (sorry that is as far as my knowledge goes on an ID.) As the large mandibles would suggest, they are voracious predators of numerous different insects. For those of you that see this character as the stuff of nightmares, don't worry, it was slightly less than three quarters of one inch long!
Photo Credits - CJT
2 comments:
That is one scary looking insect.
Michelle - he did have a pretty big attitude!
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