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- Most Bess Beetles look about the same. Male and female of Bees Beetles
also look about the same. They are shiny, either black or dark brown in
colours with body parallel-sided. Wing-covers have parallel grooves along.
There is a narrow waist between prothorax and elytra, scutellum is not
visible.
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- Adult beetles and larvae are usually found in group living in chamber
within rotten wood. They make stridulation noise when disturbed. Both adults
and larvae feed on rotten wood. Larvae look similar to Scarab
larvae, are grub-liked but not in c-shaped, always live in concealed habitats, sluggish, cylindrical, with a
well-developed head.
Bess Beetle - Aulacocyclus sp. (? A. edentulus)
- This page contains information and pictures about Bess Beetles that
we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - Body length 40mm
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- The Bess Beetle is shiny, black to dark brown in colours with parallel
grooves on wing-covers. There is a small horn on its head.
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- On Jan 2009 in Brisbane Koala Bushlands near Burbank, we found two Bess
Beetles got caught on spider web. One beetle was fully warped around by
spider silk and one just entangled on web. Both were still struggling. The
spider web is a large orb web could be belonged to a large Garden
Orb Weaver or similar. The spider was not there. The spider
could not hurt the beetles anyway, except keep them on the web.
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- We removed the two beetles from the web and clean the silk. For the fully
warped beetle, we needed to carefully remove the silks using a knife.
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- One beetle gave me a bite when I held it on hand. Its mandibles were not
sharp and did not cut my skin. On my hand, they kept making the loud
stridulation noise and I can feel the vibration as well.
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- Both beetles walked off my hand and dropped onto the ground. They quickly
walked into the plant materials and hide away.
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- Since two beetles got caught by the spider which build web only at night
time, this indicated that the Bess Beetles could be a night time active
flier.
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- Reference:
- 1. Insects
of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University
Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 627.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus
& Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p226.
- 3. Beetles of Australia - Trevor J Hawkeswood, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1987,
Plate 48.
- 4. Passalidae
- Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2008.
- 5. A Bit About Beetles In Brisbane - by Geoff Monteith, Save Our Waterways Now, 2008.
- 6. Passalidae - Insects of Townsville, Australia - Graeme Cocks
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