This is called a Serra-Pau, which I believe is Portuguese for a variety of longhorn beetle. But don't quote me. Maybe a Brazilian etomologist can clear this up.
I've never thought to look a longhorn beetle in the mouth, but now that I have, I'm surprised. I've come to expect nasty mandibles and articulated parts in my insects. But the innards of this mouth almost look to be fleshy. Is that possible? I just assumed that it would be all chitin and hardness, but I guess insects are allowed to have soft spots too. That might almost be endearing, if it didn't involve a part that wanted to eat me.
UPDATE: Thanks to anonymous, this looks much more like a female dobsonfly than a longhorn beetle.
Photo by Caio Whitaker
Jun 1, 2009
Fleshiness
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6 comments:
is the beetle hiding behind this rather large lacewing? :)
Holy Crap! Wilya look at that thing! Something straight out of a sci-fi movie! It's a good thing they aren't more than an inch or two in size...
Fortunately, as a brazilian dude, I know that "serra pau" means "stick cutter", so I guess this little hideous thing would rather be eating wood than your toes.
Still, I wouldn't like to get in touch with his mandibles.
I think this photo may be a case of misidentification. The antennae and facial features do not resemble those of a longhorn beetle (order Coleoptera, family Cerambycidae), but they do look very much like the features of a female dobsonfly (order Megaloptera, family Corydalidae). I did a google image search for "Serra Pau" as well, and found several photos of what appear to be two or more species of longhorn beetles, and then several iterations of this photo, which does not match the morphology of any of the other insects labeled as serra pau.
I don't care what species it is. It gives me the creeps.
longhorn beetle:
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/Thailand/Wildlife/AngryThaiLonghornBeetle.jpg
female dobsonfly (see both views)
http://bugguide.net/node/view/24331/bgimage
No contest.
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