Hercules beetle
The Hercules beetle is the longest beetle in the world. The boys have two giant horns, one on the head and a much bigger one above it, like a pair of pincers. It lives in rainforests in Central and South America.
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Fun facts
Its wing cases can change colour. In dry air they are olive green or yellow, and when it is damp they turn black.
Only the males have horns. The females are smaller and mostly black.
Its grub can grow 11 centimetres long and weigh more than 100 grams, as heavy as a big apple.
It can make a huffing sound by rubbing its body against its wing cases, to warn enemies.
It sleeps under leaves in the day and looks for fruit at night.
Most asked questions about Hercules beetle
?How big is a Hercules beetle?
Its body is 5 to 8.5 centimetres long, and a male with its horn can be up to 17 centimetres.
?Is the Hercules beetle dangerous?
No. It is harmless to people. It uses its horns only to wrestle other beetles.
?What does a Hercules beetle eat?
The adults eat fruit and tree sap, and the grubs eat rotting wood.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dynastes hercules
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
Where the facts come from
- Hercules beetle (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.
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