Photo by Maria Fremlin. Colchester, Essex, England. June 24 2012.
Photo by Maria Fremlin. Colchester, Essex, England. June 24 2012.
This female seems to have been crushed in such a way that her protruded organs looked rather intriguing. Did they reveal the mycangium?
To get the answer to this question, I had to seek the expert help of Dr. Masahiko Tanahashi [*] who confirmed my suspicions and generously explained where the mycangium was in relation to other organs, see below.
Close up photo of the organs.
To clarify things a bit further, below is a view of a dissected teneral female, that is, freshly eclosed female. I decided to dissect her because she had faulty wings, hence no chance of survival.
Dissected teneral female on millimetric paper, 2 mm smallest division.
Note the mycangium is a pale colour. It will darken with age. Also, the hindgut is empty, but not so the midgut.
Next time that you find a crushed female stag beetle, do have a good look at her! And send me some photos, this subject is worth expanding!
Acknowledgement:
Many thanks to Dr. Masahiko Tanahashi for helping with the interpretation of the trodden female photo.
Reference:
[*] - Tanahashi, M., Kubota, K., Matsushita, N.& Togashi, K. (2010) - Discovery of mycangia and the associated xylose-fermenting yeasts in stag beetles (Coleoptera: Lucanidae). Naturwissenschaften 97: 311-317.
Last modified: Wed June 10 2020
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