He was crawling into the shade of our carport... and he stopped long enough for me to snap a few pictures. Later I measured the size of the brick he was standing on...
It was about 12 centimeters or 5 inches square - which would make this beetle about 7.5 to 10 centimeters or 3 to 4 inches long (and about 2.5 centimeters or an inch wide?)
I showed my pictures to several neighbors who are more knowledgeable about nature than I am. Willy said it looked like a water beetle he often sees in the river. They are apparently real toe-biters! (But the nearest river is about 5 miles away!)
Rob took out his insect book. Examining the pictures, we decided it looked a little like an elephant stag beetle...
Later, I did a google search for images of "elephant stag beetle" and came up with this blog post where someone found a large beetle (that resembles this one) on his deck. He also thought it must be an elephant stag beetle but later determined it was a water beetle!
Any other ideas out there?!
(I always wanted to live near water, perhaps overlooking a lake or river... Now I've changed my mind!! I don't want insect "neighbors" as large as these!)
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