Dorcus titanus

Dorcus titanus is a beetle of the family Lucanidae. It was described by Jean Baptiste Boisduval in 1835. Huang and Chen (2013) separated Serognathus from Dorcus by representing morphological characters and DNA analysis.

Dorcus titanus
Dorcus titanus from Sumatra, Indonesia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Lucanidae
Genus: Dorcus
Species:
D. titanus
Binomial name
Dorcus titanus
(Boisduval, 1835)
Synonyms[1]
  • Serrognathus titanus (Boisduval, 1835)
  • Lucanus titanus Boisduval, 1835
  • Lucanus titanus briareus Hope & Westwood, 1845

Description

Males measure 32.0–111.3 millimetres (1.26–4.38 in) including mandibles; females 36.5–54 millimetres (1.44–2.13 in). It has an elongated, somewhat flat body dull black with blackish antennae and legs. Male's antler-like jaws have small teeth along inner edge and a pair of big teeth toward the bottom, and are forked at end. The head of a large male reaches nearly the length of its prothorax and abdomen combined.[2]

Life cycle

Adults can be seen from May to August. They feed on tree juice, especially of Quercus species. Females lay eggs on the underground part of fallen oaks. The eggs hatch in about a month and the larvae feed on rotten wood. The larval period lasts about one year. The complete life cycle can last approximately from 1 to 2 years.[2]

Distribution

This species is widely distributed in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India, Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea.[1][3]

Habitat

It mainly inhabits tropical rainforests and temperate forests from lowland to mountains.[2]

This beetle has some commercial value and export from some regions is criminalized. There are some Asian cultures that assign aphrodisiac properties to this insect, high in protein. However, most are imported for sport, decorative show, or to be kept as an exotic pet. This stag beetle is also popular pet in Asia and Europe.

  • Male
  • Larva
  • Museum specimen
  • Mounted specimen from Sulawesi (Celebes)

List of subspecies (by Fujita, 2010)

Hiroshi Fujita, a Japanese coleopterologist studying stag beetles, described over the 20 subspecies separating some subspecies to 11 subspecies in Japan. Also, He divided D. titanus titanus in Malay Archipelago into D.titanus yasuokai, D. titanus typhon, D. titanus nobuyukii and more subspecies. Fujita's subspecies are listed in here, however, these are in arguing.

Dorcus titanus platymelus

[2]

References
  1. BioLib.cz
  2. The Breeding/Rearing of Dorcus titanus palawanicus
  3. Coleoptera-Atlas
  • Mizunuma T. & Nagai S. (1994) The Lucanid Beetles of the World. Mushi-Sha's Iconographic Series of Insects, Ed. H. Fujita, Japan. Vol. I
  • Huang, H. & Chen, C.-C. 2013: Stag beetles of China Ⅱ
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