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Platerodrilus (paradoxus?)
Seen near Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo (2015). It is tentative ID for the species because even for experts is very difficult to distinguish trilobites of the genus Platerodrilus and some are not even species described yet. Platerodrilus is a genus of beetles of the family Lycidae. They commonly appear in the literature under the name Duliticola, which is an obsolete synonym. The females stay in the larval form and are about 40–80 mm in length (I think the one in the pic is larval as the male adults have red borders in their segments. They have a flat dark body with large scales over the head, resembling trilobites, hence the informal names Trilobite beetle, Trilobite larva or "Sumatran Trilobite larva" (many species are found all over Malaysia, including Borneo). The males are much smaller, 8–9 mm, with a beetle-like appearance. Most are found in tropical rainforests, notably in India and South-east Asia.
Mount Kinabalu, Sabah.
Spotted on Oct 4, 2015
Submitted on Oct 2, 2016
1 Comment
What a cool find! Well done.