Id This

[angiud]

Found tonight in my garden, with 2 bright light in the rear of the body, just like 2 eyes.

What is?

[Goshawk]

its a Lampyrid beetle at the larva stage.. common english name 'firefly'

or, if you are Thai - 'hing hoi'

[angiud]

Wow, a larva of 7-8 cm?

[rodcourt49]

Wow, a larva of 7-8 cm?

some weird and wonderful insects here..whilst you're at it can anyone ID this beetle?

[chinnotes]

This is a longhorn beetle (family Cerambycidae, in Thai ด้วงหนวด) of genus Aristobia. Unfortunately the picture is not very clear, so there are two possibilities: Aristobia freyeni and Aristobia horridula. These two species are very similar to each other, they differ on how many clusters of black hairs are on the elytra, and this cannot be clearly seen on your picture. Aristobia freyeni is not found very often, as far as I can see it is known only from Thailand and peninsular Malaysia, its Thai name would be ด้วงหนวดปมแดงบ้านใต้, Aristobia horridula is found more often, it is known from India to Vietnam, its Thai name would be ด้วงหนวดปมสีตาลแดง.

Erwin

Edited December 10, 2010 by chinnotes

[angiud]

Orchid-eating beetle by angiud, on Flickr

[Goshawk]

Wow, a larva of 7-8 cm?

take a look at this

(firefly at larval stage)

[rodcourt49]

This is a longhorn beetle (family Cerambycidae, in Thai ด้วงหนวด) of genus Aristobia. Unfortunately the picture is not very clear, so there are two possibilities: Aristobia freyeni and Aristobia horridula. These two species are very similar to each other, they differ on how many clusters of black hairs are on the elytra, and this cannot be clearly seen on your picture. Aristobia freyeni is not found very often, as far as I can see it is known only from Thailand and peninsular Malaysia, its Thai name would be ด้วงหนวดปมแดงบ้านใต้, Aristobia horridula is found more often, it is known from India to Vietnam, its Thai name would be ด้วงหนวดปมสีตาลแดง.

Erwin

..Hi Erwin..thanks for that..here is another pic I took of this beetle. ROD.

Edited December 10, 2010 by rodcourt49

[chinnotes]

First I must apologize, I misspelled one name: it must be A. freneyi, (, not "freyeni", but it is too late to edit my previous post) and your 2nd picture makes it clear, it is A. freneyi, not horridula. You can compare the two species here (1st and last picture in first row):

http://www.insectdea...en_ceram_1.html

One remark to the interesting videa: while the firefly larva in the video is indeed a larva of a member of the Lampyridae family, it is wrong to call it "trilobite beetle", the true trilobite beetles are members of the Lycaenidae family and quite different, they never "glow".

As for the small yellow beetle feeding on orchids, it's a member of the Chrysomelidae family, genus Lema TMembers of this genus are well known as an orchid pest. The life history of Lema pectoralis e.g.can be found here:

http://www.sarawakle...hid-beetle.html

The species posted here is I think not L.pectoralis, because of diffent color of the antennae. But which one it really is I cannot say for the moment...

Erwin

Edited December 10, 2010 by chinnotes

[Goshawk]

it is wrong to call it "trilobite beetle", the true trilobite beetles are members of the Lycaenidae family and quite different, they never "glow".

yeah.. i couldn't understand why the uploader of that vid used that title too..

'

Erwin,

here's one i found in Chiangmai

i assume it's this:

family - Chrysomelidae

subfamily - Galerucinae

genus - Arthrotus / Dercetina

species - ??????

the only reference i've found on the web to anything similar is here, a specimen collected from Sulawesi, Indonesia.

do you know the species ?

[angiud]

Ok, tomorrow, second day of sun after a long raining season, I'll take the Canon, 100 mm macro, ring flash and tripod and I promise to come back with something interesting from Koh Phangan!

Spread its wings by angiud, on Flickr

[angiud]

Promise kept:

Spider in my garden by angiud, on Flickr

[Korat88]

Promise kept:

Spider in my garden by angiud, on Flickr

Wonderful picture! Those white areas in the web are very intriguing. Wonder if they serve a specific purpose?

[chinnotes]

1) this spider is Argiope versicolor, its Thai name is แมงมุมท้องลายขวางหลากสี.

As for the white areas they are called stabilimenta, as when they were first described in the 19^th century it was thought that they serve to stabilize the web. Only recently it was found that these stabilimenta reflect UV light, so it is now thought that they attract insects that react on UV light. But there exist more theories…

2) unfortunately I cannot give a name for the Chrysomelid beetle. I found a similar photo in the internet, but there was no name given. I went through

"Chrysomelidae of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam" by Kimoto and Gressit, but could not find it…but I keep trying…

Erwin

Edited December 11, 2010 by chinnotes

[angiud]

I hope tomorrow to find one more small animal and post here one more pic, so Chinnotes can give us another interesting and very accurate determination and description.

[Goshawk]

2) unfortunately I cannot give a name for the Chrysomelid beetle.

yep, upon discovery this one threw me. i have a vast library myself & cannot find it either.. its likely a recently described, and as yet, unnamed species..

thanks for trying though..

[Korat88]

1) this spider is Argiope versicolor, its Thai name is แมงมุมท้องลายขวางหลากสี.

As for the white areas they are called stabilimenta, as when they were first described in the 19^th century it was thought that they serve to stabilize the web. Only recently it was found that these stabilimenta reflect UV light, so it is now thought that they attract insects that react on UV light. But there exist more theories…

2) unfortunately I cannot give a name for the Chrysomelid beetle. I found a similar photo in the internet, but there was no name given. I went through

"Chrysomelidae of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam" by Kimoto and Gressit, but could not find it…but I keep trying…

Erwin

Thanks Erwin. The UV theory sounds very credible. Nature is amazing!