Beside giant cicadas, beetles were occasional visitors to our townhouse in Taiping. Every once in a while we would get these huge 'frigthening' guests with sharp-hooked feet. My brother and sisters would keep them in a jam jar and admire them for a few days and let them go on their way.

Trilobite Beetle (Female)

This looks like something from the age of the dinosaurs. Chin Hock and I stumbled upon this beautiful crawler along the steep steps of a track behind the Kinabalu Mountain Lodge.

This is indeed one amazing beetle. The female form of the Platerodrilus paradoxa, previously identified as Duliticola sp. never sheds its larva form. She grows to a length of about 6 cm while the male beetle metamorphosizes into the usual beetle, albeit many times smaller than the female. 

Long-horned Beetle : Batocera parryi

This fine specimen was photographed at the Nest in Maxwell's Hill. Looking much like a domino tile, it was flitting around the Nest's staircase most likely because it was being attacked by the ants that were biting my toes too. Once it flew and smacked into my phone.

Remphan hopei

Recorded Width:24mm, Height:74mm in Sepilok, Sabah, Malaysia

Xystrocera festiva

Recorded Width:7mm, Height:27mm in Singapore