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Asiatic Rhinoceros Beetle a.k.a Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle

Oryctes rhinoceros

Photo by BioAlex
Published on Project Noah
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13.756, 100.681

Field Notes

Description:

Large (~5cm), dark reddish brown. Hair on the face, like a brownish orange mustache. Slow moving (thought it was dead or close to dead when I first saw it). Doesn't seem to like bright sunlight, or at least the heat associated with it, as it actively crawled out of direct sunlight whenever placed in it.

Habitat:

Tropical Asia and Pacific islands where there are coconut palms.

Notes:

Found this large beetle in the middle of the hallway at school in the morning. It wasn't moving, and I thought it might be dead. It wasn't. I caught it up in a plastic container, moved it into the lab where I had some sunlight, took these pictures, and then took it outside to release into the school garden.

Reference Links:

Coconut rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros), Asiatic rhinoceros beetle, Living Expressionz » Pests of Coconut : Rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoc…

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (5)
AdamBT
Hi Alex, Would you like to add this cool shot to my mission: http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/12531328 Cheers, Adam
BioAlex
Thanks, martinl. I'd only glimpsed over the Rhinoceros beetles and moved on, because in a cursory search, they all seemed to have "horns" that were too long. But on closer searching, this does indeed appear to be Orycetes rhinoceros, the "Asiatic Rhinoceros Beetle" aka Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle. Thanks for the tip. :)
BioAlex
Thanks KarenL. Yeah, the iPhone 4s with an Olloclip can take some pretty decent pictures, and this guy was a fairly docile subject. As for the ID, thanks for the pointer. I'm mobile at the moment, so will work on tracking it down when I can sit down at a computer and really research it.
KarenL
Great macro! Maybe a chafer of some species? (Melolonthinae)

Spotted for Missions

Mission
WILD Cities: Urban Biodiversity
Mission
Biodiversity of Thailand

Tags

Photographed
PublishedMarch 23, 2012

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