Monday, January 19, 2009

New Beetle Discovered

I came across an interesting article about a newly discovered species of long-horned beetle (Onychocerus albitarsis) in Peru in the March 2008 issue of Natural History magazine. The interesting part is that it is the first and only beetle ever found that stings. While a collector was handling it, it delivered a sharp sting to his finger making him drop it, which caused only minor irritation and swelling. When later examined it was found that on the end of each of its antennae are stingers that when magnified look much like the bulbous stinger found on scorpions. To read a nice account of this find and to see a photo of it go here.

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