Hi there my Steemian friends and followers!

I was amazed by the great response that my first contribution to the Amazing Nature Contest hosted by @adalger received and I am excited to come up with my second entry today.

But before I get to the actual entry for this round, let me say a big thank you to everyone who supported my previous entry that eventually made it to the second spot. What a nice surprise it was for me. Thank you guys!

Apparently, you like insect close-ups so it was my pleasure to dig out another one for you today :)

In spite of some intensive googling, unfortunately, I failed to find out the full name of this beautiful creature so the only thing I can tell you is that it is a species of the rhinoceros beetle (Dynastinae).

There are actually more than 300 species of the rhinoceros beetle with some of them reaching over 15 cm (6 in) in length, making this group of bugs one of the world´s largest insects.

The one featured above must be one of the biggest species for sure. As far as I remember, its body was almost the size of my palm. Definitely the largest bug I have ever seen in the wild.

I took the photo in the beautiful Colombian town of Salento that is located high up in the Andes. There were many of these giant bugs scattered all over the town. Visitors stared at them in awe but the locals paid little to no attention to these creatures so I suppose they are very common in this part of Colombia.

You might also know that some rhinoceros beetles are believed to be able to lift up to 850 times their own weight. I am not sure if the guys that we saw in Salento were capable of this incredible feat but even if they were not, they looked super cool and I couldn´t stop watching them in astonishment :)

I hope that you liked the photo and that you learned something new today. Thank you for hosting this great challenge @adalger!

This post was created by me for the Steem blockchain exclusively.

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Thank you for visiting my blog. If you like posts about #nature, #animals, #ecology, #crypto, #traveling, #photography and discovering secrets and beauties of the #world, feel free to follow me as these are the topics I mostly write about. Have a wonderful day and keep on Steeming! :)