Arthropods · Chinese spade armor
Odontolabis cuvera sinensis
Chinese spade beetles, belonging to arthropods, insects, coleoptera, spade family. Its natural habitat is a forest with a warm climate and an altitude of 0 to 1500 meters. The country is mainly distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang and other places, and the photo is taken on the Nu River.
Isn't the spade armor the kind of worm whose head has a jaw like a deer's antler? And the upper jaw of the Chinese spade armor is like a vise, so is this a spade armor?
Of course it is, and it is a magical species in spade armor. Male Chinese spade beetles in different regions can actually evolve the upper jaw evolution of different lengths and different forms, and there are three upper jaw forms of large, medium and small only in terms of length. The picture shows a male with a small palate.
In general, the body color of the spade is mostly black, tan, brownish yellow or reddish brown, but the Chinese spade body color is more abundant, the head, thorax and abdomen elytra are mostly black and shiny, and the edges of the elytra of the abdomen are yellowish brown or reddish brown, like an English letter "U".
Among the spade nails, the Chinese spade belongs to a large variety, and its male insects can generally reach more than 7 cm, and the maximum size is even close to 9 cm. However, unlike most of the insect kingdom, females are larger than males, and their females are slightly smaller than males, and in shape, females are like a large scarab beetle, not as powerful and domineering as males.
Spade armor is the "gladiator" in the insect world, and the Chinese spade armor, because of its large size and the competitive fighting courage from the "blood", they play the role of "gladiator" more vividly. Because they like to suck the sap of the fermented tree of the family Chisculaceae, they occupy the best position on a tree to suck sap, while other species of spades and insects can only retreat.
This is not to mention, the male insect territory awareness is very strong, once there is another species invasion, never ambiguously face the head-on attack, even the threat from humans, also dare to face back.
Ji Yun, photographer, naturalist, and popular science writer, author of "Beijing Nature Observation Manual: Insect Volume", "Nujiang Gaoligong Mountain Nature Observation Manual" and other books; the initiator of the "National Astronomical Collection" project of the China Astronomical Image Library, discovered hundreds of new recorded species or new species in China, dozens of new Chinese recorded astronomical phenomena, and scientific consultant of the CCTV documentary group.
Source: Yunnan Release
Editor-in-charge: Nong Tianqin Internship Editor: Chen Peng
Editor: Zhou Xiaoxue
Final Judge: Qian Hongbing