photo: Jean and Fred Hort
photo: ron_n_beth
photo: Jean and Fred Hort
photo: ron_n_beth
Habitat: Australia
Status: Not Evaluated
Now this is one beetle that must have incredible radio reception! The Feather-horned Beetle (Rhipicera femorata) is a rather uncommon, tiny species of beetle of which very little is known about its biology.
Adults range in size from 10-25mm in length and are easily recognized by their over-sized fan-like antennae. You might not think it from the photos above, but when viewed from a “human eye view” you really can see just how tiny these guys are!
photo: Byrnes-Krickl
photo: Sharyn B
The males differ from the females in that their anntenae are much larger and more pronounced. Those anntenae are unique due to the fact that they have more than 20 segments and arise from small knob-like prominences. They sort of remind me of big, bushy eyebrows!
photo: myrmecos.net
It’s known that the males will use their fantastic (hah!) anntenae to locate a female feather-horned beetle that’s emitting pheromones which indicate she is ready for mating.
I bet most human males now wish they had these… would definitely come in handy.
