Five-horned rhinoceros beetle
The five-horned rhinoceros beetle wears a crown of horns: four on its back and one extra long horn on its head. Its body is shiny jet black and its wing cases are yellow or golden. It is a big, heavy beetle, so it is not a very good flyer.

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Fun facts
It has five horns in total, which is where its name comes from.
Under its hard golden wing cases it hides a second pair of thin wings for flying.
Most males come out to fly in September, looking for a mate.
A British scientist first described it in 1908.
Most asked questions about Five-horned rhinoceros beetle
?How big is the five-horned rhinoceros beetle?
It is 5 to 9.5 centimetres long.
?What does the five-horned rhinoceros beetle eat?
Adults eat fruit, nectar and plant sap. The grubs eat rotten wood.
?Is it dangerous?
No, it is harmless to people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eupatorus gracilicornis
- Named by
- Arrow, 1908
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Eupatorus gracilicornis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.