I am not squeamish about bugs, but this one creeped me out a little and I made Kiddo get Daddy to take care of it. Being a biology guy, he couldn't just kill it. He had Kiddo get his bug tongs (these are great, by the way. You can catch the bug without touching it, transport it, and release it. Fabulous!) Then Kiddo remembered his bug notebook (from art class), and wanted to draw it. He and Daddy talked about the bug a lot, looked at all the different parts, talked about distinguishing features, etc. That of course made Kiddo wonder what kind of bug it actually was. I was dispatched to the computer and told what to features to look for. Once I found something that I thought looked like the bug, I had Kiddo compare the bug in the bug catcher and the bug in the picture on the computer. We concluded that this was probably the correct bug--a ground beetle--Scarites subterraneus (Another picture here)
The beetle was released int the grass in the backyard once it was satisfactorily drawn and photographed. We'll be doing a bit more research on this beetle, however, because now Kiddo wants to know where it lives (when it isn't in our house!), what it eats, etc. I see a day of the beetle coming in our future!
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