What is it like having a gold beetle as pet!

"Marks Pet Ownership Guide Challenge" reminded me my childhood days in the village where I was born and brought up.

I recalled my old friend, a "gold beetle" whom I admired for his lustrous golden wings that were quite amazing to my child's mind full of curiosity and enthusiasm.

My one day pet - Gold Beetle

http://www.wikinut.com/in/rnqio/www.wikinut.com/img/3boarnp65f48uy-x/Green-gold-beetle

Green gold-beetle By Rodrigomorante (Own work) , via Wikimedia Commons

To the village school where I studied, few of my classmates used to bring some metallic bugs hidden in match boxes. They used to come all the way walking from far off hamlets where there were no schools, and they had to wade through the farm fields and rough terrain hedged with thorny bushes infested with some strange insects, of which creepers and fliers were often spotted as you walked along.

During the breaks when the teacher was gone after the teaching session, my friends used to flaunt those shiny, flying bugs whose necks were tied to some sewing thread not letting them fly away. I didn't know that they're calledGold Beetles in English language, because the medium of instruction in my school was my mother Tongue, Telugu.

Even I didn't know what they were called in Telugu, because I had never come across such beautiful creatures as I never ventured into the farm fields or the little bushy jungles to know what kind of bugs existed in the wild, away from my home.

They called them 'Bangannalu (బంగన్నలు)' (the singular is Banganna (బంగన్న) ) in dialectical Telugu, even now I don't know what they're called in standard Telugu literature. So Banganna () means gold beetle when translated into English --- Bangaram (బంగారం) means gold and anna (అన్న) means brother, so to say Banganna is agolden brother.

So, my classmates from the hamlets brought the gold beetles in match boxes which contained some fresh marigold leaves for them to munch while imprisoned in those tiny boxes.

They used to bring those wonderful bugs mostly during winter because winter is the time marigolds grow well and bloom to their full extent attracting many kinds of flying insects in the farm fields where the farmers plant them along side as hedges along the bordering edges of main crops.

I was fascinated by the colors of their glittering wings, and with great excitement I used to tell about them to my parents and siblings at home while we had our night meal.

I didn't know how it happened, but one evening a friend of my father came to us and gave me two match boxes telling that I must give one to my younger brother. To our surprise, there were two bright gold beetles one in each box having some marigold leaves that were so fresh and smelling great. Each of the beetles had a thread tied around their neck.

The next morning we carried the beetles to the school to show them to our friends. We played with them as they tried to fly away but we didn't let them off and held the string and pulled them back. But we never felt the pain they would have experienced while restrained with the strings around their necks.

When we returned home for lunch in the after-noon, they were found dead in the boxes, as we opened them to add some more marigold leaves for them to eat.

I still remember what my mother told on that day. She said, "It is sin to play with the insects tying strings around their necks. Those who play thus will be born as the same kind of insects while those insects would take birth as the humans and play in the same way as you did today".

The words were very strong and we understood their seriousness and the pain the beetles would have experienced while they were dragged with the strings and suffocated to death imprisoned in the confines of the match boxes.

My brother and me never ever had enjoyed playing with the gold beetles and our children do not know the pride of possessing those golden wings.

But I searched for the gold beetle played in my childhood...

To write this article narrating my experience of school days, I searched the internet to find some appropriate images of the gold beetles that resembled the ones we played that one day that became the last day of their innocent lives, but could not find anything as beautiful and lovely in their creation, maybe the images of such beetles were not yet uploaded to the internet by the enthusiastic photographers.

Maybe some day I hope to meet them when I go around in the farm fields of my village and I'm sure I would find some enthralling golden wings that rest on the blooming fragrant marigolds bordering the chili crops.

I have inserted some YouTube videos that found fascinating to watch.

References

Image credits:
Green gold-beetle By Rodrigomorante (Own work) , via Wikimedia Commons

The following pages are interesting to read about gold beetles:

Bug alchemy: Gold and silver beetles shine with structural color 

Taking care of my Pet Beetle: Oryctes Rhinoceros

Taking care of beetle larvae (grubs)

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"Marks Pet Ownership Guide Challenge