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Sticker of Atlas beetle
Bug card No. 0073 of 1,500

Atlas beetle

Chalcosoma atlas
Name means: “named after Atlas, the giant in old Greek stories who held up the sky”
Eats: PlantsBeetlesRainforests and jungles6 legs

The Atlas beetle is a giant, shiny beetle from the warm forests of Southeast Asia. The males have three long horns on their head and back, like a little knight in armour. A big male can be longer than your hand is wide.

Lives in
Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines
Length
2.5 to 12 cm (0.98 to 4.7 in)
Top speed
about 0.46 km/h (0.29 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
The beetle is harmless. Its fat larva can give a nip if you touch it, so just look.
What does it eat?
The grown-up beetles feed on sweet plant juices. Their big, fat larvae grow up munching on rotting plant matter.
For real!Photo of Atlas beetle
Picture by MathKnight and Dr. Zachi Evenor. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Atlas beetle about 12 cm long (4.7 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 4 toy building bricks in a rowabout as long as your handcould run across a dinner table in 7.8 seconds

How big is Atlas beetle compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The males use their horns to wrestle each other, to win a female.

2

Males are much bigger than females. Males reach 6 to 12 centimetres, while females are 2.5 to 6 centimetres long.

3

Its larva is known for being fierce and may bite if it is touched.

4

Different islands in Southeast Asia have their own kinds of Atlas beetle, which look a little different.

you asked

Most asked questions about Atlas beetle

?How big is an Atlas beetle?

Males are about 6 to 12 centimetres long, and females about 2.5 to 6 centimetres.

?Why does the Atlas beetle have horns?

The males use their horns to fight each other for a chance to mate with a female.

?Is the Atlas beetle dangerous?

No. The beetle is harmless, though its larva may nip if you touch it.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Chalcosoma atlas
Named by
Linnaeus, 1758
Group
Beetles
Family
Scarabaeidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Atlas 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.
  2. Picture by MathKnight and Dr. Zachi Evenor. 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Rainforests and jungles