name the beetle

[Ernie]

My son and I were playing in the back yard, and I heard a beetle buzzing around. I found one hovering about six inches or so above the sugar sand appearing to try to blow leaf litter etc aside. It finally landed and it was the most gorgeous beetle I've seen here yet. Metallic emerald green on the back, and metallic copper on the head. I nabbed some pix and it flew away. Then we heard another. It did the same hover trick then landed- a HUGE horn. Obviously a male of the first one we saw. They could easily sit on a nickle with room to spare.

female...

By corydors at 2011-05-16

male...



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Now for the game! Who knows what kind of beetle these are???

 

[Heather]

A rhinocerous beetle?
No. A Scarab!

Phanaeus imperator? A rainbow horned beetle from South America?

 

[Brian Monk]

Rainbow Scarab.

 

[Clark]

He's a chick magnet.

 

[paphioboy]

Volkswagen Beetle...

 

[Ernie]

Rainbow Scarab.

Brian wins! Rainbow scarab, Phanaeus vindex. It is also one of the dung beetles. The sugar sand they were hovering over is used by feral cats sometimes- the reason we bought Logan a dedicated sand box with a COVER!

They are very beautiful, even if they eat poop. See some more pix here... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
I forgot about the yellow-orange eyestalks.

 

[Candace]

The first one is Molly and the second one is Ted.