Tasmanian Jewel Beetle...

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:25 am

Out in the vegie garden this afternoon (putting up fencing to keep the darn rabbits out!). This beautiful metallic jewel beetle decided to hang on to me...

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:49 am

Very nice metallic one.

It is a kind of scarab beetle.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 4:35 am

So thats what those are! I have seen these before around here during the summer but never knew what they were. They have some interesting patterns on them when viewed through the stereomicroscope. Some good shots here Steve.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 6:31 am

Beautiful beetle Steve (send me one for my collection)

Great photos, I like the second one. Rabbits...do a lot of people eat them? I hear they are very tasty if you can get them past the females in the family (here they call that the "Bambi Syndrome" where things are too cute to hunt and eat

Gordon C. Snelling · Post by **Gordon C. Snelling** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:31 am

Thats a beauty, actually it is a Stag beetle not a scarab, they are fairly closely related to scarabs and have the same lamellate antennae structure but in addition have the nifty set of mandibles.

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 2:28 am

beetleman wrote:Beautiful beetle Steve (send me one for my collection) Great photos, I like the second one. Rabbits...do a lot of people eat them? I hear they are very tasty if you can get them past the females in the family (here they call that the "Bambi Syndrome" where things are too cute to hunt and eat

Hi Doug. Supposedly tastes like chicken...but then so does snake! Wonder how much DNA the three share?

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:25 am

Steve replied:

Hi Doug. Supposedly tastes like chicken...but then so does snake! Wonder how much DNA the three share?

Here is a great excuse to start a Genome Forum.

I had chicken last night for supper and you know what

It tasted just like frog legs.

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:46 pm

crocoite wrote:Hi Doug. Supposedly tastes like chicken...but then so does snake! Wonder how much DNA the three share?

It must be in correlation how far in the past were its most recent common ancestor.