The Story of a Tiny Beetle

 

Darkling beetle isn’t named after its dark color. It’s a gray ground beetle that loves to stay in the dark. Its Latin name means ‘seeker of dark places and trickster’. But some are active during the day also. They are generalistic omnivores feeding on rotting wood, decaying leaves, dead insects, fresh plant matter, fungi, larvae and much more that we hardly have any clues about.

It’s an unpretentious armored beetle. Under the sunlight, as per the scheme in the beetle world, it would count as travelling by the night. Nights carry risks for us. The same is during the day for these nocturnal insects.

Even while at a run, it seems a leisure walk, something like a jolly, happily portly twaddle of a rotund gentleman. It crossed the garden, walked across the courtyard, walked up to the floored inner yard. As I came nearer, it feigned a perfected death. I moved away and it abandoned its acting and started again.

It looks an adventurous beetle on a long walk. A carpenter ant comes from the opposite direction. They stand face to face, greet each other, shake their antennae to convey bye and move on. An ant—far smaller—hurries past from behind. The ground beetle doesn’t care. It loves it gentle, leisurely pace. Another carpenter ant also goes speeding up as it overtakes and takes a U-turn after going a few yards. What is the use of speed if you aren’t sure of the direction? It’s better to go slowly with a clear sense of direction. The returning ant is in much hurry, so forgets to greet the gentleman like the earlier ant did. 

The ground beetle tries a hop but seems a funny miniature version of a rhino on slow trot. It but realizes its mistake and goes back to its natural pace. There it crosses the inner yard and arrives at a hole in a corner. It’s a nice, cozy, secure hole in the flooring. It seems an ideal spot for a hiatus. It snoozes around the opening. A skink raises objection at the encroachment. The beetle is too big for her mouth and she herself is out of reach for the beetle. So there is no confrontation.

It tries to climb the wall, goes with the slowest of a cautious crawl like an expert mountaineer sticking to a sheer rock face. It realizes that heights aren’t for it and wisely comes down. A very wise decision indeed, a proper estimation of its abilities. It then moves cautiously, slanted over the edge of a stone slab. A journeyman on the move, it goes into the verandah, then into the room. Who am I to stop its march? I can just look at it.