I think this is the biggest bug I've ever seen! I opened the umbrella, getting ready to paint and there she was with a little cluster of eggs nearby. Check out the video. Even though it isn't very clear you can see her middle leg on her right side is moving. It looks as though she's perturbed and she's flipping me off--there even seems to be a middle finger of sorts. As I was painting, she laid another egg! Wow, looked like another leg was extending out of her rear with pinchers and it dropped off the egg which almost dropped off the umbrella, but some sticky stuff kept it hanging on. What kind of bug is this? Don't tell me it's a cockroach--it looks like one, but I don't think it is. Well, I'm amazed even if it is one!
Watercolor, 7"x 7"
SOLD
5 comments:
AGH!!!!!!
That IS a humdinger!
Big as yer finger!
Crazy!
Bigger than a June Bug, our biggest beetle out east (I think...)
Great painting!
I know, I stood there and said, "OH my god",oh MY god, oh my GOD, OH MY GOD!" My granddaughter probably thought it WAS my god. When she saw it she stepped backwards and said, "HUGE!"
Wow! Big beetle -- not a cockroach, for sure. My guess is that it's one of the many longhorn beetles, family Cerambycidae. (Sayr-um-BISS-ehdee) But a California entomologist (try your extension agent or state entomologist) would probably i.d. this in a second. Cool.
from a Vermont artist-naturalist
(& big fan of your work & blog!)
Hi Susan--I think you're right in that it is a member of the long horn beetles--When I looked it up, I found beetles that looked like mine, but it didn't tell how big they could be.
It's a big family. All I have here that covers your region is Peterson's Field Guide to Beetles, and though they have a 2-3/8" Ponderous Borer, Ergates spiculatus, which they say is the largest western beetle, it's not yours. (The pronotum is the wrong shape.)But you've got the photo (and your painting), and someday someone will recognize it...
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