Memory Lane

Ratmosphere

Ratmosphere

Moderator
Moderator
While dealing with pets for a long time, you obviously remember a lot of experiences with them. It is great to look back at such memories to laugh and smile about. My most memorable experiences with my beetles were when I first received a pair of Dynastinae. I had no idea on what to expect! After unpacking them, I let them crawl on my hand and they would not let go. Frantically, I tried my best for 1 hour to get them off without hurting them. After being left with countless scratches, they were off and free to roam in their habitats. I would never go on to make this mistake again. An other memorable experience would be checking a breeding log of a female Lucanidae. I split open the rotting log with my hands and BOOM, a female stag beetle launches out. I will always remember this. A recent experience would be one that would never be forgotten. After catching up with my neighbor I haven't talked to in a while, I offered to show him my beetle collection. His jaw dropped to the floor as well as him taking a few steps back, shaking his head later replying "Dude, you're crazy." Showing people things they've never seen before and seeing their reaction is amusing to me. What are some of your most memorable experiences with you keeping/breeding beetles?

 
It's not so much a breeding experience but my most vivid beetle memory was hearing and then seeing the first D. granti I've ever seen alive flying towards the blacklight set up on my first trip to Arizona. For me, they only really existed in photos in field guides until that moment when I heard it buzzing in like a helicopter and crash-landing on its back. It was almost like time stood still and I couldn't believe that the beetle was really there. It's a very strange thing to get in the car at home one day, and then see these fabled bugs the next. Also saw my first "Plusiotis" gloriosa that trip. I think I collected every single bug I saw on that first trip.

 
For me it has always been about collecting. I'll always remember the first time I saw an eyed click beetle not in a collection. It was on a stump and I waded through all sorts of crazy vegetation to catch it. I've come across lots of these beetles since then, but I always come across them with a smile now since I'll think of that first time.

It's also hard to forget getting into May beetle fights with some of the other ento grad students in my department. We were out mercury lighting and the May beetles were everywhere. We would toss them away and one of the grad students collected a bunch, but it still didn't change anything. Eventually, we just started throwing them at each other when they came to the sheet. It was a lot of fun. Things died down super quickly though when a fiery searcher wandered up to the sheet since everyone wanted one of those.

One can't forget a first encounter with a fiery searcher either. Those freaking things reek if you scare/annoy them
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Probably my best memory though was when I was in Kenya last summer to do field work and I came out of the shower to see a huge Heliocopris female wandering by. You can't really appreciate the size of one of those until you can reach down and pick it up.

 
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