Samurai beetle with human face sighted

Chennai
Nov. 19: A Japanese Samurai beetle – a beetle with a human face - found its way to the Koyambedu wholesale flower market on Thursday and the proud owner is Mr A. Manoharan, a wholesale flower merchant. This is the second instance of a Samurai beetle being sighted in the state in recent times.
When a Samurai beetle was sighted in Palani recently, there was a long queue in front of the house of the person who found it from Palani hills according some Tamil newspaper reports. They called it a ‘wonder beetle’ and the owner wanted to give it to a zoological museum.
Reports of a beetle with human face being sighted in Sri Lanka have occasionally appeared. However, the sighting of a Samurai beetle in Chennai is being reported for the first time, according to experts. “A lot of beetles are spotted here with red back and having black or white marks on them. But this is a rare specimen,” Dr S. Ignacimuthu, a renowned entomologist and former vice-chancellor of University of Madras, told this newspaper.
Mr Manoharan found the beetle around 4 am Thursday but could not recollect from which flower load. “We have flowers coming from at least 11 locations such as Hosur, Salem, Theni, Dindigul from across Tamil Nadu and from Cuddappah in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
As a Samurai beetle was found near Kodaikanal and Palani hills recently, this one may have come from Dindigul from where a lot of kanakambaram and marigold arrive in Koyambedu.