Order:

Coleoptera

Family:

Scarabaeidae

Subfamily:

Dynastinae

Genus:

Trypoxylus

Size:

50mm-65mm

Features:

Male Rhinoceros beetles are quite majestic looking, with large, lustrous, almost leathery bodies made of bitumen. They have a pair of horns on their head that look like rhinoceros horns and another sharp horn on the front of their thorax. Only males have horns; females are quite plain looking. Adults develop into various sizes, depending on the quality and quantity of food that they eat while they are still in the larvae stage.

Behavior:

Adults emerge between May and August and usually prefer to sip the sap from tree trunks in small groups. However, a few species like to feed on rotten fruits and sap, gnaw on tree trunks, or chew on the bases of leafstalks, and thus they are regarded as garden pests. A photokinetic insect, Rhinoceros beetles usually appear in lit areas at night. Grubs live in soil or rotten wood that is rich in organic matter, feeding off of humus, and will remain there until they turn into pupae.

Habitat:

Rhinoceros beetles inhabit broad-leaved forests in tropical and subtropical mountainous areas at low and middle elevations. They can also be found on plains and in mountainous regions.