One time while Tom was out in our backyard he spied a very large beetle lumbering across his path. He brought it inside and we decided give him a good home for a few days. We soon found out that it wasn't a "he" but a lady Ox beetle. So we have named her Ox-alice.
The way we found out "he" was a "she" is the male ox beetle has three horns on his thorax and the lady does not and she's a little smaller than the male would be.
She was quite large a little over an inch long and about an inch wide and thick. She had a rounded body and is dark brownish-black in color.
She's not an uncommon beetle in Florida and her relatives can be found in much of the lower United States.
Ox-Alice started off her life as a grub living in the soil and perhaps did a little damage to plants and eating roots of turf. The grubs also will eat rotten wood and composted vegetation. But in her adult stage of life she is no threat at all to anything. Her diet now is fruit which has dropped to the ground and in captivity she is enjoys sliced apple and peaches. She's a lucky beetle.
