I was peeling the loose bark off a log this afternoon and discovered this wide eyed bug "looking" at me. Thought the false eyes were rather cool. He stayed long enough for me to get photos and amazingly, didnt blink when i took them! Its an "Eastern eyed click beetle" and the coin is for scale. I love nature, except when it calls!
Second or third time I've run into one of these while firewooding since the OP nearly seven years ago. The nature nerd in me did a little research and it turns out its good to have them in your logs. Their larva eat wood borers. This copied from Wikipedia. Diet The adults do not eat much but their diet consists of nectar and plant juice. The larvae diet consists of grubs of wood-boring beetles.[4] The larvae are voracious on wood borers, and during their development caged specimens were observed to devour more than 200 cerambycid larvae each.[7] Very cool looking bug though.
A little off topic, but did you know that is a copper penny? Not a big deal, but some people are collecting (hoarding) them for scrap one day. I noticed it right away by the color, and of course the year.
I have several 50# bags of pre 1982 cents I filled up over 15 years ago when copper went to $4lb and was theorized to become the new silver. I can ring test a cent and can tell if its zinc or copper
Very cool! I think one day the government will make it legal to scrap them. Just like the pre 1964 silver coins.
I still pull the copper ones from pocket change for the most part. My little research shows its not worth it to melt them down cost wise with a crucible and torch.
I couldn't agree more. Doesn't hurt to hang on to them. I'm sure the price of copper will only go up, just like everything else.
