This is the Pine Sawyer Beetle . It is said to be the biggest beetle in North America and if you seen the size of this beetle you may just believe it!

Checking out a wildfire burn area brought me to another log where I seen something move. Upon further investigation , this beetle emerged. In the photograph above you can see the this creature lives in the darkness. Helping to break down trees in the wild, however I have heard they do get into places where people live, since frankly we do live where they also live!

This photo the Pine Sawyer Beetle is in its natural environment.

I can not personally say I know anyone who has kept these as pets, or a feed source for another pet. Nor have I heard of these biting anyone, however it clearly looks like it could bite someone ?? I try not to handle the creatures I find to observe and photograph. Though I did move this one to see what it would do.

This photo shows that it does look like it has functional wings, now at this stage of life if it uses these wings to fly I did not observe for it was day time.

What I found interesting is, I put this beetle oh 12″ from its home? Now insects are just fascinating to me. They use scent as well as other senses  to find their way . This Pine Sawyer Beetle was no different and turned around to head back to the burned out log I found it in. Back to the log!

Figured I stressed this Pine Sawyer Beetle out enough and thanked it as I left it alone to find something else to get my time and attention.

I hope you enjoyed the photos. Hoping stressing this little guy/gal out for the short time I did, then writing this will benefit many for the time this took. Thank you for coming by!