Just two days ago, I was sitting beneath a tree in my backyard. Scanning the limbs I gasped at the sight of "a Hercules beetle"! I climbed the tree to get a better glimpse and my eyes laid excitedly upon a beautiful male Hercules beetle. I have seen them only dead before and never in the southwest. What I have seen before were dead Eastern Hercules beetles my mother mailed to me from West Virginia. But this was the first time my eyes have laid upon a living one. I was enthralled! I didn't have my camera and of course, the male Hercules beetle had enough of my presence. I watched as he elegantly flew up and out of the tree, and out of sight. It left a bit of a hole in my spirit and so I set a goal determined to find another within the next couple of days.

And to my great fortune, I found a male and female pair this morning! Amusingly the male was attached to the female backwards, assumingely trying to mate all the while as the female continued to scrape away at the limb. I got in to get a closer look and noticed the liquid accumulating from the tree as she munched away. As I was watching I noticed the male wrongly deposit sperm in an unsuccessful attempt to mate with the hungry female. I managed to capture this in the last 4 photos. Very amusing! Made my whole day.