Talking of Bloody-Nosed Beetles...

I mentioned that one of my many favourite insects is the Bloody Nosed beetle. I've only ever seen one, but I was mesmerized by it.

It walked cumbersomely along my window sill and straight into a spider's web. Luckily there was no spider in it, but it slowly squirmed and tried to pull itself free, but I had to help it in the end. Such a delicate operation. I was terrified of damaging it, but it escaped scot free with a bit of cobweb trailing from one of its back legs. You could see it was well aware of the extra weight and it tried in vain to kick it off!

Every time my shadow passed across it and it could sense my close presence, it ducked its little head back! It moved so slowly that I was able to go and get my insect identification book and we (me and the girls) worked out that we had found a Bloody Nosed Beetle, which, according to my book, is flightless and (cue oohs and noises of great interest) "gets its name for its habit of releasing a drop of blood from its mouth when disturbed".

Well... I had to give it a little go... I gently knocked it and wobbled it about, but it just kept walking as if it was totally unaware (or maybe, bless it, that was lightening speed for a terrified Bloody-Nosed Beetle), but nothing happened and I gave up because I felt rather guilty for trying to upset it. I moved it over to a grassy area where it could hide away from birds and cats and we watched it clamber slowly away..

I researched it further that evening and found out that they only release the blood when they are very stressed... ooh dear. Oh well, at least I hadn't upset it too much. You never can tell with a beetle.

However, the next day it was back where I'd first found it, about 6 metres away from where I'd "thoughtfully" placed it out of harms way the day before. The poor thing had probably spent the whole night getting back there. It must have been heading for somewhere in particular! This time, my 4 yr old had found it first and as I went to pick it up... a drop of blood... oh the guilt. I left it alone and it crawled under the door and hid safely away.

Now that's one cool beetle!