I did NOT scream like a little girl

First, let me tell you that this is not my usual type of “bug” post. Here’s what happened:

My 5 1/2 month old son had just started an afternoon nap and my wife took the opportunity to get in the shower (which is why you can’t believe her if she says I screamed like a little girl and jumped on a chair). I heard my son stirring and walked into his nursery to help him get back to sleep, I sat down next to his crib and was patting him back to sleep when I felt something tickle my foot. At first I just guessed it was the cat, but a moment later it occurred to me that CATS ARE SOFT! I immediately picked my foot up and looked down to see….

This monster staring right back at me

It was dark and he was not the least bit scared of me. I jumped out of the chair and turned on the light (in very manly way) and came back to take a closer look. I found a jar to put him in and nudged him into it and then searched the crib and the rest of the room to see if he had any friends around. I have no idea how this guy got into the house, up a flight of stairs, and made a left into the babies room. I kept him on my desk for a little while for ID, where I grew pretty fond of the fellow, and now he’s been released into the front yard on parole for good behavior.

He was a male Stag Beetle (Lucanus capreolus)! If you ever need to ID a bug I found these two sites to be very helpful: Bug Guide and What’s that bug?

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 14th, 2007 at 8:38 pm and is filed under bug. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.