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Sticker of Western Hercules beetle
Bug card No. 1432 of 1,500

Western Hercules beetle

Dynastes grantii
Eats: PlantsBeetlesForests and woods6 legs

The western Hercules beetle is a big rhinoceros beetle with pale grey-white wing cases and black spots. The males have huge horns on their heads, a bit like a pair of pliers. The females have no horns at all.

Lives in
Arizona, New Mexico and Utah in the United States and northern Mexico, in mountain forests
Length
3.5 to 6 cm (1.4 to 2.4 in)
Top speed
about 0.33 km/h (0.21 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Even with its big horns, it cannot hurt you.
What does it eat?
The grown-up beetle peels the bark off small branches of ash trees and drinks the sap underneath.
For real!Photo of Western Hercules beetle
Picture by Anaxibia. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Western Hercules beetle about 6 cm long (2.4 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 2 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 11 seconds

How big is Western Hercules beetle compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

When the air gets very damp, its pale wing cases can look black.

2

It takes about two years to grow from an egg into a beetle.

3

In the wild, the grown-up beetle lives only two to four months.

4

A female can lay more than 100 eggs.

5

It lives high up in the mountains, at about 1600 metres or more.

you asked

Most asked questions about Western Hercules beetle

?How big is the western Hercules beetle?

It is about 3,5 to 6 cm long, horn included. Beetles raised by people can grow up to 8 cm.

?Do western Hercules beetles bite or sting?

No. Their horns are for showing off and pushing other males. They are harmless to people.

?What does the western Hercules beetle eat?

Tree sap, mostly from ash trees.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Dynastes grantii
Group
Beetles
Family
Scarabaeidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Dynastes grantii (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 Anaxibia. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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: Forests and woods