Minor Male Ox Beetle, Side View

Minor Male Ox Beetle, Side View
Originally uploaded by E_Journeys.

Strategus aloeus, Family Scarabaeidae (Scarab Beetles), photographed with and without flash. I've also posted a front view.

My first assumption that I was photographing a stag beetle was incorrect but not far off the mark. Scarabs belong to the Superfamily Scarabaeoidea, which includes both scarab and stag as well as bess beetles. Mary and I found this one moseying down the street around 7 PM on September 18. We coaxed him onto a manila envelope and took him out of squish range onto a neighbor's driveway. After the photo shoot, Mary set him down on a lawn. We spent some time trying to remember what direction he was headed when we'd first scooped him up.

This little one measured about 35mm. He's a bit small for his species, which ranges from 30 to 60mm. When I got a little too close for its comfort, he pulled his head into his shell, much the way a turtle does.

According to Bugguide.Net, the males of this species come in "major" and "minor" varieties. The major male has two large posterior horns, while the minor male's horns are stubby. The female has no horns at all. This species of ox beetle (one of five US species of the genus Strategus) ranges from Arizona into southeastern United States and southward into South America.

The Beetle Experience adds that an adult lives for approximately four months after spending about a year as a grub. This is a fruit-eating beetle and one of the most widespread of the ox beetles in the United States. "Females will lay their eggs in substrates ranging anywhere from middle-decayed wood, to flake soil. Adding crushed leaves to the substrate will often help egg production."

More details can be seen in the large view (click the magnifying glass).