Actaeon beetle
The Actaeon beetle is one of the biggest beetles in the world. It is black and chunky, with strong legs and big claws. The male has a long horn on his head and two short horns on his back, like a little rhinoceros.
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Fun facts
Its grubs are the heaviest insects ever weighed. One weighed 228 grams, about as much as a rat.
The grown-up beetle is much lighter than its fat grub.
A big male can be more than 13 centimetres long.
Females have no horns at all, and their backs are bumpy instead of smooth.
From egg to grown-up beetle takes almost three years, but the grown-up beetle lives only a few months.
Most asked questions about Actaeon beetle
?How big is the Actaeon beetle?
Usually 5 to 12 centimetres long, and big males can be over 13 centimetres.
?Is the Actaeon beetle dangerous?
No. It is harmless to people.
?Where does the Actaeon beetle live?
In the warm forests of northern South America, in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Megasoma actaeon
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- South America, North America
Where the facts come from
- Actaeon beetle (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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 [email protected] and we will fix it.
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