#2426 - Prionoplus reticularis - Huhu
Windows in New Zealand usually don't have flyscreens on them, because they don't have remotely the fly problem Australia does. One bonus is getting New Zealand's heaviest beetle flying into the room.
The beetle and its larvae have various names in te reo Māori, - the larval form is known as huhu, tunga haere, or tunga rākau, the final larval stage after it empties its gut and prepares to pupate as tataka, the pupa as pepe, and the adult pepe-te-muimui or tunga rere.
The adults only live a few weeks, so I was lucky I was in the country over that window. The larvae spend two or three years eating dead gymnosperm timber.
The larvae are highly prized as a traditional food, and very nutritious.
The adult beetles are nocturnal and are attracted to light. George Vernon Hudson wrote in 1892 "this propensity frequently leads it on summer evenings to invade ladies' drawing-rooms, when its sudden and noisy arrival is apt to cause much needless consternation amongst the inmates". Maybe not that needless though - they have powerful mandibles like other Prionine longicorns, and don't hesitate to bite. As I discovered to my cost. The little bastard.
Mangorei, Taranaki, New Zealand