A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Platerodrilus paradoxus
Female of Platerodrilus paradoxus, Trilobite Beelte. She is black with bright orange edges and spots on her back. Around 6 cm in length. Surprisingly, saw quite a few of them during my night walk.
Tropical forest
The Trilobite Beetle has a very interesting aspect, Females retains their larvae form throughout her whole life and can grow to as big as 6 cm while they Males will transform to the regular Beetle look with wings and will just be less than 1 cm in size.
Spotted on Sep 2, 2014
Submitted on Sep 12, 2014
8 Comments
Thanks, @ashutosh.
They are considered threatened due to loss of habitats.
Still a lot has yet to be known about them. There are hardly any references of their Males, and how the Males looks likes.
It will be interesting to see a pair and have photo document of it :D
Beautiful!Is it endangered albert?
Thanks, @Fyn Kynd, @Joseph and @dan :)
Yes, @Mark, its very interesting. The Males are seldom seen and most of the time, you wouldn't think that the Males with wings are of the same specie with the Females in the form of larvae, unless you see them together :D
Great info thanks Albert.. I suppose someone needs to mix the gene pool.
Awesome Albert!
CONGRATULATIONS ALBERT! :))
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
Thanks, @Ernst and yes, very nice to see bright orange on her :)