It had just started raining and I was rushing home when I spotted something pretty big in among the leaves of a bush next to the path. Almost missed it, but stopped and found this beautiful specimen! It’s called a Saw Longhorn Beetle (nokogiri kamikiri) due to its serrated antennae (which look like a Japanese saw). With a body length of around 40mm, this is one of Japan’s bigger longhorns. I brought it home to take a few pictures in the garden (better lighting).

Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Prioninae
Prionus insularis = nokogiri kamikiri

If my identification is correct, then this was quite a good find. It’s a species of firefly in Japan’s Red List of rare species (see here).

Coleoptera: Lampyridae
Lychnuris discicollis = oomado-botaru

Location: in the woods near Munakata Common (map)

Tiger beetles (hanmyou) are very fast-moving predatory beetles with bulging eyes, long slender legs, and large mandibles (jaws). They can run so fast that they could be considered the fastest running animals in the world (for their size). A 20mm-long beetle running at 2km per hour is the equivalent of a 2m-long horse running at 200km per hour!! (And some Tiger Beetles are said to run at 5km per hour!)
The larvae (grubs) of these beetles live in holes in the ground and they lie in wait for their prey to walk by/over the hole, then quickly grab them with their mandibles.

Coleoptera: Cicindelidae
Cicindela japana (niwahanmyou)