Hercules beetle
| Hercules beetle | ||||||||||||
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Hercules beetle ( Dynastes hercules , left) and a species of the African genus Eudicella at Bristol Zoo |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dynastes hercules | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
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The Hercules beetle ( Dynastes hercules ) is a species of the scarab beetle family . Together with the giant longhorn beetle, it is the largest beetle in the world.
features
The Hercules beetle reaches a body length of up to 17 centimeters (measured with horn) and a wingspan of 22 centimeters. The males have olive to yellow-brown elytra with small dark spots. The head and thorax are colored black-brown. The males wear a long, forward-pointing horn of variable length on the pronotum , which can be longer than the thorax and abdomen combined. Near the base of the horn sit two laterally downward facing teeth, towards the tip it is hairy fox-red on the underside. The head shield ( clypeus ) has another, somewhat shorter horn, on the upper edge of which there are a row of teeth, the number of which is individually variable; both horns together form a forceps-like structure. The females are colored black-brown all over the body, the upper side including the pronotum is covered with short hair, both sexes are hairy red hairs protruding along the wing cover seam in a strip. The antennae are very short in both sexes and carry the usual leaf club of the Scarabaeidae.
Due to a spongy tissue in the cuticle, the color of the wing covers of male Hercules beetles changes from greenish to black and back depending on the humidity.
distribution
The beetles are common in several subspecies in the northern half of South America and Central America, where they inhabit rainforests. The distribution area extends from central Mexico southwards, in South America east and west of the Andes, south to Bolivia. Apart from that, there are observations from Atlantic Brazil and the Lesser Antilles.
biology
The larvae, up to 20 centimeters long and 100 grams, live in modern wood, on which they feed. Larval observations are available from partially decomposed strains of Licania ternatensis Hook.f ( Chrysobalanaceae ), Amanoa caribaea Krug & Urb ( Euphorbiaceae ) and Inga ingoides (LC Rich.) Willd. ( Fabaceae ). In Ecuador, adults are said to be tied to strains of Miconia species, on whose bark they may feed. The development time of the larvae is approx. 570 to 630 days, the lifespan of the adults approx. 75 days.
The distinctive headphones serve the males as weapons in the fight for females. The males can stridulate by rubbing the posterior end of the elytra over a rough plate of the abdomen. This is how they challenge rivals. If a rival accepts the challenge, the animals hit each other with their horns. As with many scarab beetles, there are also female males without horns. These try to get to the copula by going to the females while the adversaries fight.
The beetles were mainly detected using light traps on rainy or foggy nights during the rainy season.
Commercial importance
Beetles caught in the wild are sold to collectors and lovers of rarities. They are almost exclusively interested in the striking males, the economic value of which depends on the length of the horns. Individuals up to 12 centimeters in length were sold for $ 15 in Ecuador, and those with 15 centimeters for $ 40. Today the beetles are bred around the world and kept in terrariums. The center of the breeding is in the East Asian area, where real tournaments with measurement of the horn lengths are organized.
The species has not been listed in the IUCN Red Lists since 1996, but was represented with three subspecies in the 1990 and 1994 versions.
Taxonomy
The following synonyms can be found in the literature :
- Scarabaeus hercules Linnaeus , 1758
- Scarabaeus oculatus Scopoli , 1772
Subspecies
The following are the known subspecies:
- Dynastes hercules baudrii Pinchon , 1976 - males: 50-100 mm, females: 45 ~ 55 mm
- Dynastes hercules bleuzeni Silvestre & Dechambre , 1995 - males: 55 ~ 155 mm, females: 45 ~ 75 mm
- Dynastes hercules ecuatorianus Ohaus , 1913 - males: 55 ~ 165 mm, females: 50 ~ 80 mm
- Dynastes hercules hercules ( Linnaeus , 1753) - males: 45 ~ 178 mm, females: 50 ~ 80 mm
- Dynastes hercules lichyi Lachaume , 1985 - males: 55 ~ 170 mm, females: 50 ~ 80 mm; Venezuela
- Dynastes hercules morishimai Nagai , 2002 - males: 55 ~ 140 mm, females: 50 ~ 75 mm
- Dynastes hercules occidentalis Lachaume , 1985 - males: 55 ~ 145 mm, females: 50 ~ 80 mm; Colombia
- Dynastes hercules paschoali Grossi & Arnaud , 1993 - males: 55 ~ 140 mm, females: 50 ~ 70 mm
- Dynastes hercules reidi Chalumeau , 1977 - males: 50 ~ 110 mm, females: 50 ~ 65 mm
- Dynastes hercules septentrionalis Lachaume , 1985 - males: 55 ~ 150 mm, females: 50 ~ 75 mm
- Dynastes hercules takakuwai Nagai , 2002 - males: 55 ~ 140 mm, females: 50 ~ 75 mm
- Dynastes hercules trinidadensis Chalumeau & Reid , 1995 - males, 55 ~ 140 mm, females: 50 ~ 75 mm
- Dynastes hercules tuxtlaensis Moron , 1993 - males: 55 ~ 110 mm, females: 50 ~ 65 mm
swell
- Dynastes hercules in Generic Guide to New World Scarab Beetles, Matthew R. Moore, University of Nebraska State Museum - Division of Entomology, 2006.
Individual evidence
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↑ Manfred Lindinger: A strange play of colors in the insect kingdom . In: FAZ . March 19, 2008. HE Hinton & GM Jarman (1972): Physiological Color Change in the Hercules Beetle. Nature 238: 160-161. Doi : 10.1038 / 238160a0
- ^ A b Jen-Pan Huang (2012): Ecuador — Land of the Giant Hercules Beetles. Scarabs, occasional issue Number 71: 1-12.
- ↑ Breeding reports on dynastes.de
- ↑ cf. Lai, J., & Hsin-Ping, K. (2008): For the Love of Rhinoceros and Stag Beetles. Second edition. Vol. 1: 250 pp., Vol. 2: 195 pp.
- ↑ 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, p. 290: Taxa removed from the 1996 Red List.
- ↑ a b Hercules Beetle, Dynastes hercules . www.biolib.cz. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
