Bug card No. 1600 of 4,939

European rhinoceros beetle

Oryctes nasicornis

Eats: Wood BeetlesForests and woods6 legs

The European rhinoceros beetle is one of the biggest beetles in Europe. It is shiny reddish brown, and the male has a long curved horn on his head, just like a rhino. It flies around at dusk and at night and likes to come to lights.

Lives in

Europe, North Africa and Asia as far as Pakistan, but not in Britain or Ireland

Length

2 to 4.7 cm (0.79 to 1.9 in)

Top speed

about 0.29 km/h (0.18 mph)

On foot, estimate

Can it hurt you?

Harmless

Harmless. It does not bite or sting, so you can watch it safely.

What does it eat?

Its huge larvae eat rotting wood, in old tree stumps and piles of sawdust. The grown-up beetles do not eat at all and live on the fat they stored as larvae.

Photo of European rhinoceros beetle — Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

as long as 8 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 12 seconds

How big is European rhinoceros beetle compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)

European rhinoceros beetle about 0.29 km/h (0.18 mph)

A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)

A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

Only the males have a horn. The females have none.

Its larva is even longer than the beetle, up to 10 centimetres.

The larva takes 2 to 4 years to grow up.

Its belly and legs are covered with long red hairs.

Dim, the big beetle in the film A Bug's Life, is a European rhinoceros beetle.

you asked

Most asked questions about European rhinoceros beetle

?Is the rhinoceros beetle dangerous?

No. It looks scary with its horn, but it is harmless to people.

?What does a rhinoceros beetle eat?

The larvae eat rotting wood. The grown-up beetles do not eat at all.

?How big is the European rhinoceros beetle?

It is usually 2 to 4 centimetres long, and the biggest ones reach almost 5 centimetres.

For bug experts

Scientific name: Oryctes nasicornis
Named by: Linnaeus, 1758
Group: Beetles
Family: Scarabaeidae
Classification: Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
Lives on: Europe, Africa, Asia

Where the facts come from

European rhinoceros 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 Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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