Lesser Stag on the drive

I was delighted to find a Lesser Stag Beetle at 8.10am on the drive and had to hastily remove it to the back garden to safety before Jenny reversed her car out. The Beetle is a woodland species seen in the south of England and unlike the Stag beetle has small pincers "antlers" and all black body as opposed to the brown abdomen of the Stag. 

After gently handling the beetle, I noticed it was missing it's right hand antennae if you look carefully at the second picture you can see the spot just in front of the eye where it should be. Maybe that was why I found it out on the drive? Was it disorientated? The Lesser Stag would stand stock still "play dead" for a couple of minutes after it was handled, before it crawled off. Needless to say, I took a few photos of it in the half hour I had before I had to leave for work. Finally I carefully put the Lesser Stag Beetle under leaf litter under a large bush at the side of the garden. On investigation, after I got back from work the beetle had unsurprisingly departed.