rilobite Beetles look like they belong in the ocean 250 million years ago, but they are actually pretty happy existing in the present day. On land. Found in lowland forests across Southeast Asia and India, these peculiar beetles are an enigma wrapped in an armoured shell with the tiniest head and some nice orange highlights. The trilobite genus Duliticola belongs to the family Lycidae, commonly known as net-winged beetles. This family is a pretty interesting one, because many of its species display huge physical differences between their males and their females. Trilobite beetles are no exception. While the females are easily recognizable - that incredible form is retained from when they were larvae - the males look entirely different. They pretty much just look like plain old beetles, with long, winged bodies and a pair of thick antennae. And all they have to look forward to is growing to 5 mm long. How embarrassing, because the females end up more than ten times larger, growing up to 6 cm long.

One of the greatest challenges in studying this genus is actually assigning a male and a female to the same species. Other than genetic testing, the only way you can really know for sure that you've found a male-female pair is if you happen to catch them 'doing it'. Either you saw them with their genitals firmly locked together, or you saw nothing. And unfortunately, not many researchers have actually managed to see this process in action. It's generally accepted that there are lots of species of trilobite beetle in Southeast Asia, but because the males are so nondescript, only a handful have yet been classified.

The only way you’re likely to catch a couple of trilobite beetles mating is if you’re willing to spend a lot of time with them. In 1996, Alvin T. C. Wong from the Department of Zoology at the National University of Singapore followed a number of female Duliticola hoiseni trilobite beetles in the rich, humid forests of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and provided one of the first comprehensive reports of the trilobite beetle life cycle. According to Wong, they hatch from their eggs in tiny trilobite form and spread out to begin a life lived almost entirely on and around rotting logs and leaf litter. What these beetles actually eat is pretty controversial - some say they’re predators and will eat snails and other insects, while others insist that they’re far more passive, living off fungi, slime mold, or rotting wood juices.

At around the five-month mark, says Wong, the larval D. hoiseni females will begin to look really bloated and their outer membranes will have stretched to their absolute limit. So they'll curl up under a piece of wood and remain there, unmoving, for two to three days as they shed their old exoskeleton and develop a new one.

Music: From Scales To Feathers (Thirsty Lizard Mix) by Dhruva Aliman
https://dhruvaaliman.bandcamp.com/album/the-wolf-and-the-river
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