![]() hercules will engage in combat to win possession and mating rights to a female. It has been observed in wild habitat and in captivity that male D. hercules have shown that a male placed in the vicinity of a female will immediately orient towards her and seek her out, suggesting chemical communication through strong sexual pheromones. Like most insects, communication within the species is a mix of chemoreception, sight, and mechanical perception. hercules beetles are capable of creating a 'huffing' sound, generated by stridulating their abdomen against their elytra to serve as a warning to predators. Within their native rain forest habitats, the adult beetles, which are nocturnal, forage for fruit at night and hide or burrow within the leaf litter during the day. They have been observed feeding on peaches, pears, apples, and grapes in captivity. The adult Hercules beetle feeds on fresh and rotting fruit. The larvae of the Hercules beetle are saproxylophagous, meaning that they feed on rotting wood they reside in same during their two-year developmental stage. Adult beetles can live for three to six months in captivity. After the third instar stage, the pupal stage lasts about 32 days, where it will transition into an adult. In laboratory conditions at 25 ± 1° C, the first instar stage lasts an average of 50 days, the second stage an average of 56 days, and the third an average of 450 days. The larvae can grow up to 11 cm (4.5 in) in length and weigh more than 100 grams. The larvae have a yellow body with a black head. Once hatched, the larval stage of the Hercules beetle may last up to two years in duration, where it will go through 3 metamorphosis stages, also known as instars. ![]() The eggs have an incubation period of approximately 27.7 days before they hatch. Females have an average gestation period of 30 days from copulation to egg-laying, and may lay up to 100 eggs on the ground or on dead wood. The mating season for adults typically occurs during the rainy season (July to December). Not much is known about the life cycle in the wild, but much evidence has been gained through observations of captive-bred populations. hercules have punctured elytra which are usually entirely black, but sometimes have the last quarter of the elytra colored in the same way as the males. At low humidity the elytra are olive-green or yellow in color, but darken to black at higher humidity due to changes in light refraction. They have a slightly iridescent coloration to their elytra, which varies in color between specimens and may be affected by the humidity of the local environment in which they develop. ![]() They have a black suture with sparsely distributed black spots elsewhere on the elytra. The body of males is black with the exception of the elytra, which can have shades of olive-green. ĭynastes hercules is highly sexually dimorphic, with only males exhibiting the characteristic horns (one on the head, and a much larger one on the prothorax). This variability results from developmental mechanisms that coincide with genetic predisposition in relation to nutrition, stress, exposure to parasites, and/or physiological conditions. The size of the horn is naturally variable, more so than any variation of the size of legs, wings, or overall body size in the species. Male Hercules beetles may reach up to 173 mm (7 in) in length (including the horn), making them the longest species of beetle in the world, if jaws and/or horns are included in the measurement. Dynastes hercules trinidadensis Chalumeau & Reid, 1995 (= bleuzeni Silvestre and Dechambre, 1995)Īdult body sizes (not including the thoracic horn) vary between 50 and 85 mm (2.0 and 3.3 in) in length and 29 and 42 mm (1.1 and 1.7 in) in width.Dynastes hercules takakuwai Nagai, 2002.Dynastes hercules septentrionalis Lachaume, 1985 (= tuxtlaensis Moron, 1993).Dynastes hercules reidi Chalumeau, 1977 (= baudrii Pinchon, 1976).Dynastes hercules paschoali Grossi & Arnaud, 1993. ![]() ![]()
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