Three horns
The male uses his horns like a pair of tongs, to grip a rival and lift him off the branch.
The Borneo rainforest · Beetles
Atlas beetle
Chalcosoma atlas
A big, shining, bronze-black beetle. The male has three long horns: one on his head and two on his shoulders.
- Size
- Males up to 13cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rainforest in South-East Asia
Trundles after you, horns first. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Atlas beetle
Good to know
Six things about the atlas beetle
Named after a giant
Atlas was the giant of Greek legend who held up the sky.
A weightlifter
It can carry several times its own weight, and far more than that in short bursts.
A fierce grub
The grub lives in rotting wood for a year or more, and will bite if it is touched.
Big males and small males
Well-fed grubs become males with long horns. Poorly fed ones have short horns and avoid fights.
No horns for her
The female has no horns at all, and a rougher, duller shell.
The real thing
Photos of the atlas beetle
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
They come to lights near the forest at night, and to sap and fallen fruit. The whirr of the wings is the first thing you notice.
How to help
Dead wood is where the grubs grow up. A forest that is tidied or cleared has no place for them.
Keep going
More from The Borneo rainforest
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