my son found this outside and wanted to keep it so i put it in with his praying mantis he found yesterday. It looks like a giant beetle but my husband says its some kind of cockroach. Its about 1.5-2 inches. My son was digging in the dirt when he found it but not sure if it came out of the dirt or just caught his eye. Its a very active bug and climbing all over the branches and leaves in the tank.
heres another picture
and another
and another
last one (sorry about the double on the last one)
Eeeeeeeeew, that gives me the creeps all the way around!
It's a Water Scavenger Beetle
http://bugguide.net/node/view/9598
I agree with claypa, it is a Water Scavenging Beetle of the genus Hydrophilus. BugGuide shows two species, but Hydrophilus ovatus seems to be restricted to the eastern half of the USA, so I think we can safely assume it to be Hydrophilus triangularis: http://bugguide.net/node/view/37654
We have no beetles of this family in BugFiles so far, so I have created an entry for http://bugguide.net/node/view/37654 here: http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/4827/
Can we please have your images added to that page, and I can then use one to illustrate the new family in the index,
Kennedy
