Is there an entomologist in the house?

I'm wondering if anybody can tell me what kind of bug this is? It is incredibly loud and sounds exactly like a model airplane engine.

The only sound recording instrument I have is my camera, so I shot a movie of it... sort of. To minimize file size, I left the lens cap on, then transcoded the *.mov output into flash while doubling the audio output level. You will have to listen carefully to pick out the insect sound from the ambient noise.

It goes

tok.............tok.............tok..........tok........tok......tok.....tok....tok...tok..tok.toktoktoktoktoktoktoktoktoktoktoktok

ending up in a sustained high whine that continues for about 40 seconds, then goes quiet. In another minute or so it starts up again.

It is incredibly loud. The one I recorded here was probably 200--300 meters away. One landed on my deck and I couldn't hear the television even with the windows closed. I tried to photograph it but it flew away just as I got the camera ready. It was a flying beetle, about two and a half inches long. The volume is fully equivalent to a model airplane engine, and the first time I heard it I was convinced that that was what it was.

Take a listen...

tanstaafl.

Linuxfolk: mplayer can play that strange format.

Oh... it's just plain old flash video. Is that a problem? I can transcode it into other formats (like WMV) but the file size will be quite a bit larger, I think. No, my mistake. A WMV conversion is only a little bit larger. Attached.

tanstaafl.

From the sound, I would guess some sort of katydid. Less likely, a cicada. But given that you refer to it as a beetle, a cicada seems more likely.

Yeah, circada don't sound like that. I've lived with them.

Unless this is a turbine powered circada....

Jet bug?

They don't sound like any cicada I've ever heard, either, but different species have different songs.

Wikipedia says that some species of cicada produce sound in excess of 120 dB. That's enough to cause permanent hearing damage! So if what I heard and saw was some sort of cicada, that must have been it.

Two nights ago I found the beetle shown below in the photograph sitting in the road, apparently too tired to fly. (It has lacy wings that extend out from under its carapace). I picked it up, and it was incredibly strong, it grasped my fingers so tightly it actually was painful. It was content to hold onto my hand until I got home, so I was able to get some photographs of it. It looks like it might be the same kind of insect that I heard and almost got a picture of last month, but I can't be sure, it was dark then.

Does anybody know what this is?

tanstaafl.

It looks like a relative of the Triceratops Beetle, a member of the dynastidae family.

Hi.

Would it be a male Strategus Aloeus?

pca

This is a picture of a male Strategus Aloeus. There is more than a passing family resemblance. I'd say you nailed it, Patrick. So this obviously is not the bug that was making all the racket, even though it does look a bit like it.

tanstaafl.

Aim for the nerve stem.

ROFL