Darwin's beetle
Darwin's beetle is a stag beetle with chestnut-brown wing cases that shimmer a little green. The males have giant curved jaws that are longer than their whole body. They climb high up into big trees to look for a mate.
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Fun facts
When two males meet in a tree, they fight. One hooks his jaws under the other's wings and throws him off the branch.
The fights can happen 20 metres up in the trees, so the loser has a long fall.
The females are much smaller than the males and have small jaws.
It has become rare, so it needs protection.
In Chile it has many local names, like ciervo volante, which means flying deer.
Most asked questions about Darwin's beetle
?Does Darwin's beetle bite?
Not really. Charles Darwin found that its jaws were not strong enough to hurt a finger.
?How big is Darwin's beetle?
Males can be 6 to 9 centimetres long with their jaws. Females are about 2.5 to 3.7 centimetres.
?Why do Darwin's beetles have such big jaws?
The males use them to fight other males for a mate.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chiasognathus grantii
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Lucanidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Lucanidae
- Lives on
- South America
- Also known as
- Grant's stag beetle, Chilean stag beetle
Where the facts come from
- Chiasognathus grantii (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 User:Sarefo. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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