The longest beetle
Counting the horn, a big male is the longest beetle in the world.
The cloud forest · Beetles
Hercules beetle
Dynastes hercules
A giant beetle with olive-yellow, black-spotted wing cases. The male has a horn longer than the rest of his body.
- Size
- Males up to 17cm, with the horn
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Mountain and lowland rainforest from Mexico to Bolivia, and some Caribbean islands
Trundles after you behind his horn. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Hercules beetle
Good to know
Six things about the hercules beetle
Two horns, like tongs
A long horn from his thorax and a shorter one from his head close together like a pair of tongs.
He throws his rivals
Males grip each other with their horns, lift, and slam the loser to the ground.
It changes colour
Its wing cases are yellow-green when dry and turn black when the air is damp.
A grub as big as your hand
The grub lives in rotting wood for up to two years, and can weigh more than 100 grams.
Enormous strength
It can carry many times its own weight on its back.
The real thing
Photos of the hercules 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
It is active at night and comes to lights, and to fruit and sap. By day it hides in the leaf litter.
How to help
The grubs need big, rotting logs. Collecting for the pet trade and loss of forest are its main problems.