Return of the Giant Bugs

[Summer]

Somehow I always forget about these strange creatures till they appear at the first cold winter rain. I have never found out what they are but when the first rains come these giant June Bug types come alive and bang against the windows. They are definitely attracted to light. They are tan in color and about the size of a quarter or a little more. I don't know if they hatch with the rain or what. Anyone know what these things are?

[CatdaBrat]

I never bothered to look them up scientifically, but people around here call them "rain beetles." The Native Americans used to use them as food, I think in a larval stage. They make holes in the ground.

My kids used to go out on the porch and swat them with badminton raquets. I can't even have the porch light on at night and go anywhere near it or I will have those things stuck in my hair.

I have a sliding glass door and tonight I opened the drapes and turned the outside light on so the cat could leap at the window trying to "catch" the beetles, but then she started to growl and spit. A possum was on the other side of the glass catching and eating the rain beetles. Yuk.

[Dodgergirl]

I came home tonight to a bunch of them flipped upside down on the porch. I think Kaya had a great time with them...

[Kahlua Kid]

I've never seen the "Rain Beetles"- wanted to know what they looked like/what you are talking about. So I looked them up!

The larger, more rotund, flightless female rain beetle rarely leaves her burrow in the ground. She emits a pheromone that is apparently irresistible to the male, as she waits for him at the surface of her burrow. After mating, the female closes the entrance and lays eggs at the base of her burrow. Like the male, she is equipped with a rigid digging device at the end of her head called a clypeus. Both sexes of Pleocoma lack functional mouthparts and digestive tracts, and consquently do not feed during their brief adult life. With her powerful legs and clypeus, the female pushes and scoops the soil like a miniature bulldozer. Her eggs do not mature until the following spring or early summer.

A female rain beetle (Pleocoma sp.). She is larger than the male and spends most of her life below ground in her burrow. Like the male, she has a very hairy underside and is equipped with powerful legs and a sturdy clypeus on the front of her head.

Rain beetle larvae hatch from eggs deep in their mother's subterranean burrow. They are slow to develop, and have a life cycle lasting ten years or more. They feed on roots, fungal hyphae and other organic debris, eventually metamorphosing into adults. Adult males may wait a month or more before the first rains bring them into the open air for their mating flight. During this time, the females dig to the surface and wait for the males to arrive. Neither male nor female rain beetles feed as adults, their short adult life provides the vital transfer of genes and perpetuation of these remarkable species of beetles.

The female is the larger brown beetle - the male the smaller black one.

https://www.sdnhm.org/fieldguide/inverts/images/pleo.jpg

Which led me to find out what this GIANT beetle (about 3 inches long) I've seen around our property (that makes a loud hissing sound if you "bug" it - no pun intended!) (I think our feral cats like to eat them - gross! - because I've found them bodyless occasionally - with the head still in tact - and not to gross anyone out - the antennae still moving.)

A long-horned wood-boring beetle (Prionus californicus):

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/images/prionus1.jpg

[BGW]

KK--

You reminded me of a story worthy of a quick journal posting!!! http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/laugh.gif

http://oakhurstforums.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=7666078441...261083891#8261083891 (http://oakhurstforums.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=7666078441&f=1791013111&m=5381023111&r=8261083891#8261083891)

[Ironhorse]

I've never seen either one at my place. I'll let you all have them (I'm so generous http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/happy.gif)

[oakhurstleaf]

We've got 'em here. Ours aren't tan though, they're a dark blackish-brown...about the size of a 50-cent piece. My cats are lovin' them...they catch them, play with them and walk around with them in their mouths...one was floating in their outside water bowl this morning. I, personally, find them gross and creepy...they remind me of Japanese Beetles from the milder climates of SoCal. Anything that flies around blindly, bumping into people and walls while making a buzzing sound as their wings flap at incredible speeds, is welcomed prey for the cats.

[CatdaBrat]

Last year, one got in the house and the cat just about destroyed everything trying to leap and catch it. She finally got it, but now I try extra hard to keep them out.

They remind me of the big flying cockroaches back in the deep south. Had one of those land in my hair (my hair was hip-length and rolled up in old-fashioned brush curlers -- it wasn't a good experience to try and get the roach out)!

[mermomma]

Ahh that's what they are! The morning that my Dad passed away, this past Monday. They were in like a weird formation around his back porch door. I thought it was some weird omen....all these suicidal bugs....

[beautiful_mess38]

We have them here. I found one in the outside kiddie pool I use for the dogs and cats water. The water was frozen solid with the bug in it. I've also seen them in our cats mouths.