Monday 27 May 2013

Giger bugs


Saw these near Men-an-Tol on the Penwith peninsula. Found afterwards that they are the larvae of the Bloody-Nosed Beetle, or Blood-spewing Beetle, which feed exclusively on 'bedstraws' (I always called this goosegrass). The adult spits a red fluid when in trouble. - I wanted to identify the weird, leathery beasts and went to a specialist website; with a heavy heart, knowing how slim my chance of finding them among thousands. But they were the very first in the list of recent queries! Someone else had just seen them, and in Cornwall too.