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Elephant beetle

Megasoma elephas

Photo by Sphingid_Matt
Published on Project Noah
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10.5022, -84.6828

Field Notes

Description:

Over 100mm usually some males can exceed 120mm but it is rather rare. Orange brown fuzzy elytra with a large horn on male's head. Usually found at night or near sugar cane and banana plantations. Mostly occurs in the rainy season.

Habitat:

Costa Rica neotropical cloud forests. High elevation.

Notes:

I found this Elephant beetle when I cut open my toe on a stone ledge when I was searching for insects at night. I went to go wash off my foot in the pool nearest to us when I hear my dad step on something hard on our way to the pool steps. When I look down I couldn't believe my eyes. It was an Elephant beetle just walking around not even phased from getting accidentally stepped on. Once we noticed him we took him back to the hotel to show the family. When we were there, we fed him Papaya, Pineapple, and some Banana.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (1)
AntónioGinjaGinja
Welcome to Project Noah, Sphingid_Matt Great first spotting,congrats and thanks for sharing We hope you like the site as much we do; there are many features you can explore: We invite you to go to http://www.projectnoah.org/faq where you will find the purpose and “rules” of Project Noah. There is a blog http://blog.projectnoah.org/ where we post articles from spotters with special insight into different organisms. There are also the chats for help with identification, and to comment on your own and others’ spottings. Look at the global and local missions to put your spottings into: http://www.projectnoah.org/missions Enjoy yourself here, see you around!

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Insects of Costa Rica
Mission
Life in Costa Rica

Tags

Photographed
PublishedJune 2, 2014

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