Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: What kind of beetle is this? , 1 by ncaptiva

ncaptiva wrote:
Two questions actually... I'd love to know the name of the brown beetles that fly erratically and slam into everything at night, then lay on their backs as if they're dead or dying, then disappear by morning. We get TONS of them every night, flocking to the porch lights, of course. I've started catching them & feeding them to our Sandhill Cranes the following day (lol). It's a fun way to maybe put a dent in the population!

As for this photo, these remind me of those other brown beetles, but they're about twice or 2 1/2 times their size. They do the same thing... fly somewhat erratically, slam into things... are highly attracted to porch lights... but they don't end up on their backs or anything. I've never seen one before in my life, and on the night I took this picture, I saw about 5 or 6. Crazy...

Also, for anyone who might find this interesting... we buy crickets to feed our Chameleon, and to give them water, we put a soaked cotton ball in their cage. Well, when we decided to catch a bunch of brown beetles (20 to be exact) to see if the Chameleon would eat them (which he wouldn't), we put them in the same cage. By the next day, nearly every single one of them was gone... I couldn't figure out where they went! Then, I noticed the cotton ball was about 3x's its normal size. Those beetles all burrowed in the cotton! lol... So I assume the reason they "disappear" by morning is because they burrow underground. SO fascinating!

I'm in the Sarasota area, by the way. Thanks!