The devil rides out
A long black beetle undulated across the path in front of me and I recognised it as a devil's coach horse Ocypus olens. These carnivorous rove beetles rear up their tails like scorpions when they feel threatened and while the tail doesn't have a sting in it their mandibles can give you a nasty nip. I've seen this display before but never noticed the two little bright white 'fangs' which are the scent glands, capable of producing a foul smell as a defence. Mounted on top of the raised tail they look like eyes - I wonder if they have a mimicry function too. (Another view of this in the extra.)
In Irish folklore the beetle was thought to direct a curse by pointing its tail and you'd be forgiven seven sins if you killed one. It also provided the theme of a 1979 pot-boiler with the strap line A winged terror flies by night feeding on death and destruction (worth checking out the cover illustration).
Give a beetle a bad name and crush it? (Needless to say I didn't.)
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