The magnificents

[urbpan]

Found this rather logy gentleman as he bumbled along the exterior wall of the zoo hospital. I have also been fielding requests to identify similar insects this week--apparently the reddish-brown stag beetles are out and about this time of year. They're probably mating and dying, that combination of events that makes many otherwise cryptic insects more conspicuous.


Not far away, in an off-exhibit greenhouse, our corpse plant Morticia bloomed again. Totally worth a little kiss.

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

yay morticia! very impressive :)

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

totally horror movie stills, just darken them up a little

[lisianthia.livejournal.com]

I got to see Perry the Corpse Flower at Gustavus Adolphus College several years ago.

[ssorca19.livejournal.com]

Aww, my duke had a bad run in with a stag beetle when he was young. I thought he was dying. Dog in the backyard at night starts screaming. Run to door to see what's wrong, screaming stops. Nothing else seen in backyard with dog. As dog walks into house, screaming starts again, along with running/ crashing through house. Stops again. At this point I'm sure my dog has ruptured something crucial to be screaming so much. Until I get close enough to see he's got a good sized stag beetle hanging onto his collar. Every time he moved his head a certain way, it would pinch his neck. Poor guy! The collar was removed and mr beetle relocated outside...

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I play video games for which the designers expend great effort trying to come up with stuff even half as creepy as that corpse plant.

[deathling.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm so jealous you got to see a blooming corpse flower!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

We have a small family of them at the zoo. Morticia bloomed in 2012 also. Fester looks like he's getting ready to bloom--he looks like a giant skunk cabbage sprout.