Spring is one of the most beautiful season. sunny sun, soft winds, flowers bloom, you get to see lots of beautiful insects in this season, colourful bugs, butterfly's, beetles, etc.I personal like butterflies they're colourful different patterns, prints, sizes all different than other. I also like beetles... like the Hercules beetle my personal favourite. Well the name speaks for itself Hercules strong & powerful. It is a species of rhinoceros beetle & family scarabaeidae, commonly known as scarab beetles.
These beetles are the longest extant species in World & also one of the largest flying insect in the world.I really like how strong they look & are, infact they can carry upto 850 times its own weight. They also got this name because of their horns, these horns in male can be 5-7.5cm long sometimes even longer than their body.
These beetles are found in tropical jungles & rainforest. And are black, brown, green, blue, yellow & white in colour. However the lifespan of an adult beetle is few months. Most of their life they are in larval form, in larval form they feed on rotting wood & as adults feed on fresh & rotting fruits. These are very beautiful insects , so pretty that some people even pet them, although they are very hard to find & are very expensive for buying.
Kingdom : Animalia
Class : Insecta
Family : Scarabaridae
Subfamily : Dynastinae
Genus : Dynastes
Species : D.hercules
50-85mm longer & 29-42mm wider
Lifecycle
Transformation from larval to beetle
In larval form they are grub or worm like structure. They feed on rotting woods. They have dark heads and white or yellowish body & six spiny legs, they have tiny covering of hair on them, there are 3 metamorphoses stages 1st of 50days 2nd of 56days and 3rd of 450 days, the one in the above picture is the 3rd stage which is also the last stage as larval.
The little circles on the larval are spiracles ( respiratory openings) these are connected to trachea-tubes within the insects body. The oxygen enters through the spiracles & diffuses into the insects body,
Pupal is a type of hard cover to protect itself from predators, after the body of beetle gets hard the beetles breaks the cover and gets its form.
Adult Beetle
There life as adults are only 3-6 months. They use their horns to protect themselves & in fights with other beetles. They have forewings the underwings are the wings they use to fly & the outer wings are to protect. We already know that Hercules beetles are strong but what makes them so strong?
Firstly, these beetles are very long & are packed with powerful muscles. Second they have three legs touching ground at all times, which gives them balance and leverage to lift heavy objects easily.
Hercules Beetle is not only known for its strength but also its colour changing abilitie.The beetles forewings or elytra are usually a yellow-green color, they're able to rapidly change their color to black. They have thin, spongy layers under the outermost layer of their exoskeletons (the epicuticle) that can take on fluids and cause this color change, which occurs only when humidity levels reach over 80 percent. it helps to camouflage these beetles.
Colour changing abilities
Legs: Hercules beetles have large muscles in their legs which is one of the reasons why they are
strong also their have spines in their legs to help them dig into mud / rotting woods, to get
their food. And are also used in fights with other beetles/ predators to
defend themselves.
Eye: Compound eyes
Made-up of thousands of tiny lenses, each with its own set of light sensors. Every lens
sees a dot of colour, & all the dots add up to form a image. The more the lenses, the more
the detailed image. The system is very sensitive movements.
Horns: These horns on Hercules beetles might look very heavy but in reality they aren't.
They are hollow from inside. If weighted then only 0.5 to 2.5 % are horns of the
whole body weight. so its actually very easy to balance or carry them.
Sound: They make sound to communicate / warn other predators. They move their abdomen
up/down against their outer wings to create a huffing sound.
Locomotion: locomotion most happens through wings, less walking.
Defending/protecting: They use their horns to defend themselves from predators, Since their outer
wings can change colour because of High humidity so they use it to
camouflage themselves.
Routine: Active at night / avoid day to protect themselves. At night they feed & roam/ be outside
their hidding places.
Skin & Texture: Since Hercules beetle live in tropical & rainforest their covers are smooth.
So that rain water will glide of them.
Hair/Bristles: They have many fine touch sensitive bristles which help in detecting air movement.
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