Meet the Bess Beetle
Real Singing Beetles
Have you ever been digging in the garden or your flower bed and come across a HUGE grub or large black beetle? If you've ever spent any time digging around outside or under logs in the Eastern US (or Midwest) then you've probably encountered our guest beetle for today, the Bess beetle or Bess bug . Their Latin name is Odontotaenius disjunctus (O-don-tote-a-knee-us dis-junk-tus). Odon means "tooth" and taeni means "band" or "ribbon". This refers to the bands of teeth on their bodies (abdomen and wings) that they use to make sound. Dis refers to "separate", "double" or "two", and junc refers to a "rush" or "reed". This may reference that they sound like rushes or reeds rubbed together.
Bess beetles are one of the largest beetles you can find (1.2-1.6" long) and can be quite startling. Their backs look like shiny patent-leather dress shoes with legs (there's an image for you). Their bellies have golden hairs and their head has a single horn. Bess beetles are in the scarab super-family (Scarabaeoidea), and there are over 500 species around the world. The Bess beetles of North America (Odontotaenius disjunctus) are one of the few scarabs in the US. Look carefully and you can see the characteristic scarab looking club-like antennae on their head.
The common Bess beetle name probably comes from the the early English term buss meaning "kiss" or the French term baiser or even une bise, which also means "to kiss." Both sound very close to "Bess." This name may attributed to the noise that the beetles make when they're startled or feel threatened. It's akin to a "kissy-sound," like what you'd make when making fun of your older brother kissing his girlfriend or the practice smooches you did as a kid in the mirror. The sound is made much like how a cricket makes sound, by rubbing body segments together, a process called stridulation (st-rid-you-lay-shun). Listen to this...