The Next Generation

Here's a little story. This is a stink beetle. Female as I found out. We see these little things walking around here. Whenever you tease them they stick their abdomen in the air and give off a stink. Anyway, I was walking around this day and I saw one just setting still on the ground. I thought it was dead until I nudged it with my shoe and it moved a bit. As I walked, I saw another one (the one in this picture) just frozen the same way. As I continued my walk, each time I passed either of them by, they had moved to a different spot to stand still. I then realized that both of them were staying close to some ant nests, and then that wherever they stood, they had the tip of their abdomens ("tail") sticking into the ground, and as I observed, they left little holes in the ground where their abdomen had been in the ground.
So, I haven't read up on it yet to confirm my... theory, but I came to the conclusion that they were laying their eggs, and perhaps they lay them near ant nests for protection or something of some kind by the ants. Anyway, this was a fun little discovery for me.^^

Yet it also answered another question I had about these beetles. I had observed two varieties of these beetles; some with smooth, rounded bodies; and others with little textured ridges on the shell, and little points on the upper sides of the thorax (like "shoulders"). I wondered if they were different species, or just different genders. Well, if these one I saw here were indeed laying eggs—both of which fit the latter description with ridges and pointed 'shoulders'—then those must be female, making the smooth round ones the males.




.......Anyway, that's my elaborated babble for the day which no one will probably even care about. Other then that, I'm rather happy with how this photo turned out and the kinda mood it seems to have. XD

Forgot to link the pic of the other beetle I saw doing the same thing: