A while back we shared with you our quest to find inspiration for new projects we were working on. You can review that post here. Since that time we have welcomed some new family members to our home. The purpose was to study their habits, their form and their nests but, truth be told, Martin is enjoying his new friends.
These are Hercules beetles that we have named Boris and Natasha as they joined our household when the Olympics were being hosted in Russia this winter.
Boris, the male is easy to recognize as he is the proud owner of a pair of horns of “Herculean” proportion, hence the name of the species.
Natasha is less flashy and a bit camera shy. As there is no competition in the terrarium they have been forced to accept each other and occasionally we have witnessed something vaguely approaching amorous behavior. Yes, we are definitely guilty as charged of imbuing these scarabs with human emotions.
What can we tell you about our 5 months with the couple?
- They like banana and mango and, most recently have developed a taste for peaches.
- They have very poor table manners. Once they discover they like a particular fruit they quite literally immerse themselves in it and use their mouth parts, which look like hairy brushes, to suck up their food. They can remain immersed for hours.
- They are generally nocturnal and when we look at them in the daytime we spend quite a lot of time turning over mulch to find them.
- They need a very moist habitat so we spray water into the terrarium every couple of days.
- When they emerge from the soil they are dark but become lighter with exposure to UV light.
- Conversely, when they are sprayed with water they turn darker.
- As a result of all of the above we have a fair number of fruit flies that require we clean out their soil quite often.
- Last but not least, when you stroke Boris he hisses and Martin finds this “cute”.
You will recall that we gave away ten of our scarab beetle drawer pulls at the recent 2014 HD Expo. Both Diana Kouzouian of Kouzouian's FCF. Inc., and Carlita Anderson of Josh Held Design walked away as the proud owner of their own beetle.
As a teaser I will let you know that Martin is currently working on a fantasy painting of beetles and I will share his progress as we go along. So, how do you feel about these prehistoric creatures?
To view our entire collection of architectural hardware in beetle and other animal forms, please visit our site at www.martinpierce.com.