Lucanus Cervus Akbesianus

That’s a mouthful eh?  Well, I’ll bet you don’t want a mouthful of these little tanks. Another scratchboard illustration, 5X7 inches on Claybord. It’s tough getting used to scratching through the india ink, when I apply it by hand, I wind up making some areas thicker than others and it makes it tough to pull the scratching tool smoothly. It’s still fun though, don’t get me wrong!

Destroyer of Worlds!

I got the following from the site of Cukurova University: “A rare and endangered subspecies of stag beetle (Lucanus cervus akbesianus) inhabits in Amonos mountains which are located in Hatay, Turkey“

Apparently there’s a game in Japan in which you fight beetles (on your computer screen of course) and in the game, this is the guy to have. He’s the Monster of All Beetles and is unstoppable. SO what do the Japanese kids want? REAL monster beetles. And they get ’em too. There’s a black market exporting these guys from Turkey and it’s really hurting their population.

I sent mine back when he was finished posing.