Longhorn beetle frass (I am unsure which species) on a willow tree at Taozi lake. These beetle larvae due a fair bit of damage in spite of the park workers vigilance. Curiously the ejected frass attracts a variety of butterflies: I observed many a polygonia c-aureum, vanessa indica, kaniska canace, and even one charaxes bernardus attracted to its sap.
Asian Longhorned Beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis, 光肩星天牛).
Similar to anoplophora glabripennis but possible to distinguish by the tubercles (little bumps), at the base of its elytra.
Citrus Longhorn Beetle (Anoplophora chinensis, 华星天牛).
The larvae are pests, and quite destructive to local trees, but the adults are large impressive beetles and have a conspicuous presence throughout the summer.
Campsosternus auratus (丽叩甲).
A large metallic click beetle, the adults are fairly common in the summer.
Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus ssp. dichotomus, 双叉犀金龟). Female.
This afternoon Yuelu mountain was hot, breezeless and dry and activity clustered around its few still trickling streams. Where there was water there were birds, including both a mother and fledging Amur paradise flycatchers. There were also many flies and moths (I left them undisturbed) and at one stream, a large solitary beetle, climbing along the wet rocks. The female rhinoceros beetle lacks the male's cephalic horn, and she was also missing one leg, though that did not greatly reduce her mobility; insects are often battered in the wild, but often seem more so in the dry season of summer.
Oriental Flower Beetle (Protaetia orientalis, 凸星花金龟).
Common summer beetle, usually they are copper or metallic green or something in between those two colours. They are fairly distinctive, but one can distinguish them from other scarab beetles by the narrow white line on either side of the pronotum and the white spots on their backs (dorsal surface). They appeared in droves during the wet part of summer and their bodies litter the ground later in the dry heat. They are fungivorous, and seem to frequent a wide range of flowers and ripened fruits.
Serrognathus titanus ssp. platymelus (中华扁锹甲). Male.
A giant stag beetle, this subspecies is common throughout China and is fairly easy to find on wet (but not heavily raining) days in summer in Changsha. They are lugubrious and slow: carefully plotting their path with their jointed feather-tipped antennae before moving ahead. The male is much larger than the female and has large antler-like jaws, with several small teeth along the edge and two big teeth on either side towards towards the back.
Japanese Knotweed Leaf Beetle (Gallerucida bifasciata, 二纹柱萤叶甲).
A ladybug-like beetle: they can be black and red or black and yellow with considerable variety in the patterns of their spots. Regardless of their colour, they all have large antennae.
Allotraeus rufescens.
A small red long-horn beetle, basking in the rain on Tianma Mountain, Liuyang. My son noticed it on the bottom of a mossy step.
Epicauta hirticornis (毛角豆芫菁).
Fairly common Hunanese burning blister beetle: I have seen them in the forested hills near Changsha (but never on Yuelu Mountain), but this one I saw today on a trip to Tianma Mountain (天马山), in the city of Liuyang.
Plagiosterna aeneipennis (金绿里叶甲).
A charming little leaf beetle. My daughter found one on Yuelu Mountain and I found another in Taohualing Scenic Area; there are probably many more out there in the forests.
Lema diversa (鸭跖草负泥虫).
One can easily lose oneself in the world of leaf beetles and the lema genus alone contains over 1300 species. This small but beautiful red-brown beetle came out of hiding close to sunset in the Taohualing Scenic Area, near the top of one of the parks many forested hills.
Large White Cockchafer (Cyphochilus apicalis, 尖歪鳃金龟).
Today, after the morning rain, there were at least a dozen of these June beetles on top of the south hill in Wangling Park, climbing in the trees and crawling along in the mulch below. They are so white they pop out of the verdant background, wherever they are. The usually strong whiteness of their scales has inspired material engineers to imitate its construction: art imitating nature.
