20 Suprising Facts About Stag Beetles

You must have seen a large beetle with pincers somewhere. Well, those pincers are actually mandibles of stag beetle. Male stag beetles are often found to use their large, antler-like jaws to battle against their rivals. The massive mandibles resemble the antlers of a stag, hence their name.

During the mating season and while establishing dominance in the crew, adult stag beetles are seen using their mandibles to fight the competitors, often indicating a warning signal to other males.

Yes, stag beetles have amazing flying abilities. They can fly a long distance in search of mates and food. Stag beetles are often found to navigate through forests and urban areas revealing some scenes of shock and surprise.

Both males and females are capable of flight despite their giant sizes. Using hidden wings under their hardened outer shell, males are often seen flying at about the height of our face while females don't usually move very far.

Stag beetles are nocturnal creatures that are active during the night. These creatures are often attracted to the warm light sources at night. The nocturnal behavior of stag beetles has been helping them to avoid predators.

Since stag beetles remain inactive most of the time during the day, it makes them less susceptible to drying out in the skin. At night when it has turned dark, stag beetles feed on dead wood of varieties of shrubs and trees without imposing any risk to the living ones.

Both male and female stag beetles have antennae. Male beetles often have larger antennae than that of females. The antennae of male and female stag beetles are usually expressed as kneads, possibly because of their complex shape.

They can be seen pretty well with your naked eyes or with a magnifying glass. The antennae actually do the work of detecting pheromones released by the potential mates, serving as a nose to smell things. It plays a crucial role during their mating season.

Stag beetles have several species around the world. All these species vary significantly in their sizes. In fact, different species of stag beetle have different sizes. Some of them are found to be a few centimeters, while some species are pretty long having several inches in length.

Adult males of stag beetle might have sizes ranging between 35-75mm long while female stag beetles are rather smaller than the males ranging between 30-50mm in length. Female mandibles are also quite smaller than those of males.

The life of a stag beetle starts as an egg that has been laid usually in the decaying wood by the female beetle. Once they turn into larvae, they are found to spend several years feeding on the decaying wood.

The larvae stage of the stag beetle is the longest stage of their entire life. After the larvae stage, they undergo pupating stage underground and finally emerge as the adult beetle. The adult beetles are found to live only for a few weeks or months.

Stag beetles are found in various habitats around the world. They like forests and gardens, areas with enough dead wood. They are widely found in hedgerows, traditional orchards, and parks throughout Western Europe including England.

Areas that receive the lowest rainfall and highest average air temperature are where stag beetles are mostly found. The female beetles are often found to prefer light soils, that are easier to dig down, to lay their eggs.

Yes, it is quite fascinating to hear but stag beetles indeed have orange-color tongues. They use their tongue to lick the sap and fruit juices when turned into adults. Adult beetles do not need to eat at all since during the larvae stage, they've stored enough fat for their whole development.

Stag beetles don't use any other body parts such as mandibles to feed. The tongue is the only element of the adult beetle to lick the sap and juices out of their favorite plants.

Just like humans and other related living beings, stag beetles need to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide but they don't have lungs to perform breathing mechanisms. Stag beetles have spiracles in their body to breathe in and out.

Upon close observation, you might see little holes down on each side of their bodies which are called spiracles. The spiracles lead to the trachea. The valves of spiracles are responsible for the breathing mechanism which can open and close during inhale and exhale respectively.

You should know stag beetles are insects. Like all insects, the adult stag beetle has three body parts: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. The thorax is a middle portion joining the head and three pairs of legs. Yes, a stag beetle has six legs in total.

If you look more closely at their legs, you might find sharp hooks at the end of each leg. This hook has been found to help the legs to grip things while crawling. During the larvae stage, stag beetles rub their legs together to communicate with other larvae.

As you know, the stag beetle has two pairs of wings like all other insects. The top pair which is commonly known as wing cases are hard and shiny. Both males and females hold the wing cases up and unfold the soft wings underneath while flying.

The flight seems to be very massive for creatures like them, which are actually insects. If you ever caught a male stag beetle while flying, you might find they kind of fly like a helicopter with their black wings held behind and upright.

Well, if you find a little stag beetle around the park, there's a high possibility it is its ultimate growth. All the adult beetles that you encounter around the dead woods or parks, they're in the final phase of their life and they've stopped growing.

All the major growth and development of stag beetles occur at the larvae phase when they are feeding dead wood and earth. For every new stage in their larvae phase, which is called instar, the stag beetle loses its old shell or skin for the new growth and development in their life cycle.

Yes, stag beetles have many facet lenses all serving as the eye. In fact, like all insects stag beetles have compound eyes, which means their eye consists of a single unit and this single unit further contains many facet lenses.

Having a compound eye, the stag beetle can see in all directions with relative ease. The crystalline cone-structured facet lenses are all responsible for giving vision to the stag beetle, however, till the pupae stage, their eyes don't work properly.

Stag beetles mind their own business. If you let them do what they like to, they're very unlikely to interfere in your work as well. Therefore, it is less likely that stag beetle will bite you. However, it would be best for you to take extra caution by wearing proper gloves while handling these large beetles.

You should know, stag beetles are not venomous and most probably will ignore you if you leave them alone. This shows that they are not particularly dangerous and harmful insects.

Yes, it is quite surprising to hear that adult stag beetles do not usually eat. Only during their larval stage, do they feed on the decayed wood. However, adult beetles like to drink the sweet fluids such as sap and juices of the trees and fruits.

The adult stag beetle mostly relies on the energy stored during their larve stage. The larvae beetle are found to use their sharp jaws to scrape the fibrous surface of the dead wood for several years including fungi, other small insects, and broad-leaved plants such as beech, willow, ash, and so on.

If you see the whole lifecycle of a stag beetle from egg to adult form, on average they are found to live between three and seven years. The majority of this period is spent as a larva under the ground constantly feeding on the rotten woods, creating tunnels.

The hatching period tentatively occurs after three weeks and after that for several years, they undergo various instars of the larvae stage. When they emerge out of the pupa phase from the underground only then they are considered adult stag beetles. However, the adults are found to live for only a few weeks.

Being a giant beetle with pincers, stag beetles actually aren't harmful in any way. Yes, they have a frightening appearance but if you ever encounter them in some sort of an uncomfortable place around your property, you can safely pick them up and move them out.

It has been found, females are more capable of biting you than males. If you encourage them, they might move their jaws just enough to give you a bit of a pinch. However, it is very rare for you to get bitten by a stag beetle.

In many cultures and sectors, stag beetles are taken as a part of various symbols as in art and literature, they are often symbolized as power and endurance. Similarly, in Japan, they are popular pets among children and collectors. Stag beetles are bred and specially cared for their healthy populations.

It has also been found that the scarab worshiped in European religious culture is actually the stag beetle that symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. They are often seen in various art forms including murals, sculptures, and paintings.

Yes, the stag beetle rarely produces sounds that are audible to humans. Unlike other insects, apart from a kind of buzzing or propeller sound during their flight, stag beetles rarely produce other sounds.

The flight-like sound is recognizable if you listen to it more carefully. However, if you make use of a contact microphone, you might be able to hear a short click sound of their feeding or movement during their larval and adult stage.

Unfortunately, stag beetles have been listed as a globally threatened species. They are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, listed as a priority species for conservation in the United Kingdom and London Biodiversity Action Plans.

London has been the hotspot for stag beetles around the world. It has been doing some remarkable conservation work to make people aware of the stag beetle. Habitat destruction such as scarce dead wood, elimination of the woodlands and parks, cats and other predators, and traffic in urban areas are some of the major causes.

Egg

The female stag beetles are responsible for laying eggs, usually around the rotting wood in the late summer. The eggs are about 3mm long having black or brown coloration.

In general, the females can lay 20 eggs at one time. Having completed about 2-3 weeks as an egg, they hatch into larvae on the same spot feeding on the decayed woods for several years.

Larva

The eggs of stag beetle hatch into larvae. The stag beetle larvae have orange-colored heads and legs. They've 3 pairs of legs like an adult. Usually, the larvae have a cream or white-colored appearance with brown antlers.

The stag beetle larva starts to feed on the rotten wood where it lives. It has been found that the larva usually spends around 6 years feeding on the decayed wood until it reaches its full size, which is approximately 8cm in length. There are five instars or stages in the larvae phase.

Pupa

After spending around 6 full years in the rotten wood, larva stag beetle leaves the wood and makes a cocoon in the soil. This period has been identified as the pupa stage of the stag beetle. It lasts for a few weeks during the late summer or autumn.

For a few weeks, the pupa stag beetle lives underground in the soil usually until the next summer. This period will transform them into fully grown stag beetles, allowing them to emerge out in the outer world as an adult.

Adult

The adult stag beetle can be up to 7cm long measured including its mandible. They are often seen flying usually at dusk or evening, looking for a potential mate. The stag beetles in their adulthood are found to mate a lot of times and then die shortly afterward.

It has been found the adult stag beetle only lives for about 6 weeks feeding on the fruit and sap juices. Their main job is to seek a mate and reproduce. The females are quite smaller in size than the males, around 5cm in length. After laying eggs around the rotten wood, she dies shortly afterward.

Stag beetles are beneficial insects. They are considered good for gardens, parks, and woodland ecosystems. The Stag beetle feeds on the decayed woods, particularly the larva stag beetle for several years. These play an important role in recycling and breaking down the wood.

While feeding on the rotten and decayed wood, stag beetle helps to return the essential nutrients to the soil. In addition to that, they are found to provide food for the birds and other smaller insects and fungi. Therefore, the stag beetle is a crucial decay agent of the environment, helping to create a balance in the natural ecosystem.