Horns for wrestling
Males use their horns to lever each other off a branch. The loser is thrown, unharmed.
Tropical north · Beetles
Rhinoceros beetle
Xylotrupes ulysses
A big, glossy black beetle. The male has a forked horn on his head and another on his back.
- Size
- Up to 6cm long
- Look for it
- October to December, then January to March
- Where
- Rainforest, gardens and street trees in tropical north Queensland
Trundles after you like a small tank. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Rhinoceros beetle
Good to know
Six things about the rhinoceros beetle
Enormously strong
A rhinoceros beetle can shift many times its own weight.
It hisses
When picked up it squeaks and hisses by rubbing its body against its wing cases. It is bluff: it cannot bite or sting.
A giant grub
The larva is a C-shaped white grub as big as a thumb, living in rotting wood and compost.
Gatherings under street lights
In the wet season, dozens gather on poinciana trees and under street lamps.
Females have no horns
The female is smaller and plain, with no horns at all.
The real thing
Photos of the rhinoceros 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
In Cairns or Townsville on a summer evening, look on the trunks of poinciana trees and on the ground under lights.
How to help
The grubs turn dead wood and mulch into soil. A rotting log or a compost heap is where the next ones grow up.
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