AN ALIEN

 

Contrary to the title, this will not be an entry about aliens 😊, but about our "earthly beings" - the existence of which we may not even know, but living next to us.

The season for watching and photographing our largest beetles is in full swing.

The stag beetles are almost gone, so it's time for another giant.

The Great Capricorn (Cerambyx cerdo) - although it looks huge, unfortunately it is not the leader in terms of size.

Of course, if you measure it together with the antennae, it is unmatched. In males, the antennae may be longer than the entire body. With a body length of up to 6 cm the lenght including  antennae is approximately 15 - 18 cm - unfortunately, the lenght of the antennae "is not counted  in the size" 😊

Adult couple - in the foreground - the male

Like the stag beetle, it inhabits oak forests, with the difference that it lives inside living trees. The larvae feed inside the trunks - initially under the bark, and as they grow - deeper and deeper into the trunk.
Sometimes you can see thumb- size holes on oak trees - these are most likely signs of great capricorn, or rather adults that have emerged after metamorphosis.

Made by Great Capricorn

An old log with visible traces of feeding by Great Capricorn larvae

The adult form (perfect/imago) "emerges" between May and the beginning of September to mate and lay eggs. The entire development cycle takes approximately 3-5 years.

The female lays eggs

Well, to say they are beautiful may be a bit of an exaggeration - but for me they are.
What's more, when we look at them at high magnification, we can see certain details of their construction and only then can we see how creative Mother Nature is.

Great Capricorn are protected as an endangered species, and although the larvae feed on old oak trees, which are sometimes even natural monuments, they are not exterminated.

We are lucky that the largest population of the Great Capricorn in Poland occurs in Lower Silesia, in the Barycz Valley Landscape Park.

They are most often seen in the evening on warm and muggy days.

So when we meet them somewhere in the forest, let's not scream or kill them - even though they look like aliens from horror movies - they are not dangerous to us.
We don't touch or pick them up - they may bite in self-defense.
It's best to observe and enjoy their beauty, because it may happen (hopefully not) that the subsequent generations will only know them from books.

Photos: Marek Czubaszek

PS - Thanks to my friend Ela for the title idea 😊