Acanthophorus serraticornis?? a wood boring longicorn
i am usually both happy and curious to find new insects in our garden and around the house in coastal southern Maharashtra. this one was different. i could feel this one was trouble. you see, our best coconut tree died a couple of years ago and our gardener explained it was killed by an insect that lays it's eggs in the wood of the tree. at the time i had no idea what insect it could possibly be but when i saw this giant i immediately suspected it to be the one.
now i respect insects for their place in their ecosystems and i find most of the species fascinating and beautiful and am glad to have them around the garden though not in the house like this one. and maybe i'm completely wrong but this guy gives off bad vibes. like invading aliens on the kill type vibes. it didn't attack or anything like that so after taking a few photos i gently but firmly encouraged it to fly away and was relieved when it did.
i made some preliminary attempts at identifying it and tend to think it is a male Acanthophorus serraticornis. whatever the species it is huge- these are not macro shots. it's the biggest insect i've ever seen and the antennae are even much longer than it's body. i have to admit this is a truly impressive life form not easily forgotten but if it is the insect that killed our coconut tree i hope it never comes back.
