On an evening walk in our neighborhood my husband and I found a large beetle, more than an inch long. My husband’s closeup (above) and my cautious far-away photo (below) provided enough clues to determine its identify.
Its size and shape place it in the scarab beetle group. Its large mandibles mean it’s a stag beetle, one of 1,500 species in the world, four in eastern North America. This one is a reddish-brown stag beetle (Lucanus capreolus) because it has bicolored legs dark at the tips and yellow at the base.
Basically harmless to humans, reddish-brown stag beetles eat rotting wood as larvae and sip sap as adults. The larvae develop for two years, then emerge as adults during the summer. Like other scarab beetles they’re most active at night and attracted to lights.
Stag beetles were named for their head gear which they use like antlers, not like teeth. Just like stags (or deer) the males fight each other with their horns!
In the video below, watch male stag beetles in western Europe (Lucanus cervus) fight for dominance. “The goal is to throw down the opponent” !
What big “teeth” you have!
The better to fight with, my dear.
(photos by Rick and Kate St. John. video from YouTube)
p.s. regarding the loud bird sound in the background of the video filmed in Europe. Is it a Eurasian magpie?
I was glad to see your article about the Stag Beetle you found. On an evening when my husband was gone I found one crawling around in mulch here in East Central Ohio. It kept trying to crawl up the side of my house but of course couldn’t keep its footing on the siding. By the time my husband got home the beetle was gone, and my husband wondered if I was teasing him….He thought my picture looked more like a tick….