Foolish beetle

Any coleopterist know what it is?

When Penny trilled upstairs. from her mission to refill our morning tea: "There's a huge beetle on the stairs", I naturally smelt a rat. What is today's date, for goodness sake?

But this was no April Fool. A large beetle was indeed trying to burrow its way to safety in the far corner of one of the treads. After a brief photographic sesh with our snazzy new Panasonic Lumix camera, I let it on its way, murmuring Isabella's entomological lines from Measure for Measure:

The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance feels a pang as great
As when a giant dies.

Good news, meanwhile. A new mercury vapour bulb for the trap is at last ordered and so normal service should resume within days. Stand by for Martin's Moths of 2015...