Probably a little more fun for me than the beetle, as he was unfortunately deceased.
Ed and I came upon this impressive corpse on our walk the other day. I thought I’d do a little research and found out that our discovery is a member of the scarab family. To be precise, this particular rhinoceros beetle is known as a triceratops beetle, because it sports three horns.
The triceratops beetle is found throughout the US, but they aren’t seen that often. I could probably count the number of times I’ve witnessed this impressive bug on one hand. No more than two hands, that’s for sure.
Rhinoceros beetles are carnivorous, dining on succulent worms, crickets, stick bugs and the like. It doesn’t sound all that appealing, but when you compare their cuisine to that of their Middle Eastern relatives, it’s not so bad. They don’t call them dung beetles for nothing.
One of my animal encyclopedias said that the horns are not particularly effective as weapons. When males fight, more often than not they just scoop up the opponent with a horn, carry him a little ways off and unceremoniously drop him. They sometimes do the same thing with the female. Maybe they do it just because they can.
In Asia, the rhinoceros beetle is often kept as a pet. It seems like the kind of bug I would’ve kept as a youngster, but perhaps whenever I found one it was an inconvenient time, like a family picnic in the woods, or school recess.
Now that I’m grown up I can’t run around collecting bugs and putting them in jars. I have to participate in more sophisticated activities.
Like making bug jewelry.