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Asiatic Rhinoceros Beetle

Oryctes rhinoceros

Photo by John B.
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

Scarabaeidae; Dynastinae; Oryctini; Oryctes; Oryctes rhinoceros (Linnaeus, 1758). This is a female. It has not much more than just a suggestion of a horn and the posterior segment of the abdomen is "hairy". The male has a very long horn and the last segment of the abdomen is shiny and hairless. Wikipedia explains it much better, but my third and fourth photos, hopefully, show these characteristics.

Habitat:

This beetle was spotted on its back, in our backyard on a smooth, flat rock. These beetles are immensely strong, but their strength does not help them if they tumble unto their backs on a smooth surface (if they cannot grip onto the surface with their claws, they just cannot right themselves and may die in that position). I should have taken a picture of this one, on its back, to show the ventral view, but I could not resist turning it the right way up to relieve its stress. So, dorsal views are all that I got.

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