Little stag beetle
The little stag beetle lives in East Asia. It has a red shell, and the males have big jaws that look like the antlers of a deer. The males use those jaws to fight each other.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its red shell helps scientists tell it apart from a very similar stag beetle.
The males do not all have the same jaws. They come in three different jaw shapes, which is very rare in the animal world.
Only one other kind of stag beetle is known to have males with three jaw shapes like this.
The big jaws of the males are weapons for wrestling with other males.
Most asked questions about Little stag beetle
?Do little stag beetles bite?
A male can pinch with his big jaws if you hold him, so it is best to just watch.
?What are the big jaws of a stag beetle for?
The males use them as weapons when they fight other males.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dorcus rectus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Lucanidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Lucanidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Dorcus rectus (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 takato marui. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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