Surely the question is, what is the largest bug in the world, almost every person asked at least once in his life. Such thoughts often arise when meeting with various arthropods somewhere in a park or forest. It would seem that the relative giant for central Russia is the rhinoceros beetle or the May one, but anyway, anyone who is interested in nature subconsciously suspects that such a size is not the limit. This is absolutely true, because the world knows individuals whose body length reaches 20 centimeters. Today we would like to pay attention to the largest beetle in the world and tell everything about it, starting with its name, description and habitat, and ending with its main competitors for the title of giant of the class of insects.
Huge barbel, which has no equal
Today, science knows only one representative of the winged-wing squad, the size of which is very impressive. This beetle, called a lumberjack-titan, is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records as a record holder in size and dimensions. The body length of the giant of the insect world can reach 22 cm. However, most individuals grow only up to 13 cm. This fact does not in any way detract from the superiority of the woodcutter-titanium over other representatives who claim to be the largest beetles in the world, because there are only a few individuals from all Earth (regardless of name and species) are able to reach super-large sizes along with their own relatives. By the way, it is worth saying that the females of this individual are always larger than males.
View description
The beetle has an elongated body, slightly expanding downward. The main color varies in three colors: the head and the beginning of the body are almost black, and the rest and wings are the transition from brown to burgundy. The largest beetle in the world has a rather wide, but flattened body. That is why in the lateral projection it is a bit like a concave lens. The head of this arthropod is directed straight ahead. The place of its connection with the body is protected by three spikes. They are slightly pointed and located on both sides absolutely symmetrically. The eyes of the beetle are in the dimples on the face. The antennae are attached to the head directly next to them. In males they are much larger and longer than in females. Titanium has 3 pairs of limbs. The beetle leads mainly a nocturnal lifestyle, in the afternoon it prefers to hide in dry stumps or under fallen leaves and branches. The peak of activity of this insect is reached at dusk - during this period it crawls out from under the leaves and takes off. Males are very susceptible to light rays, so they often fall into the traps of entomological researchers.
Titan Lumberjack Habitat
The largest beetle in the world, the titan lumberjack, belongs to the family of barbel. The habitat of this arthropod is very extensive. It can be found in the wild Latin America: from Peru, Ecuador, Suriname and Colombia to Bolivia and central Brazil. We can say that the lumberjack-titan lives in a neotropical zoogeographic complex. In our latitudes it is not found due to too low humidity and insufficiently high body temperature.
Lifestyle & Reproduction
The life expectancy of an adult (adult) of the largest beetle in the world, the photo of which can be seen in the material presented, is from three to five weeks. During this period of time, the animal does not eat anything at all, living through the use of accumulated energy reserves earlier. How does the conversion of the lumberjack-titanium larva into a sexually mature individual occur to date has not been clarified. This is due to the fact that so far scientists have not been able to find it, while they have long studied adult barbel. Experts suggest that at this stage of life, the beetle should develop in the roots of old trees. The pupation process is believed to occur in soil or soil.
Other members of the insect class advancing on the heels of a titan woodcutter
The largest and most terrible bugs in the world, as practice shows, live mainly in tropical latitudes. Most often they do not pose any danger to humans, being peaceful insects. It is noteworthy that many tourists and residents of their habitats take giants into their hands completely fearlessly, without fear of consequences. We would like to make the top 10 largest bugs in the world and briefly talk about each of them:
- The hero of our article today remains the undisputed leader. The first place belongs to the titan woodcutter bug.
- Hercules beetle, whose males reach sizes exceeding 17 cm.
- Large-tooth olenorogy, the largest individual of which was discovered by scientists in Peru. Its length was about 15 cm.
- Elephant beetle - 12 cm body length of a male, 8 cm - females.
- Goliath beetle, which inhabits the territory of Africa and reaches a length of 11 cm.
- The relic barbel, called in some sources a lumberjack or Ussuri, usually grows over 10 cm in length.
- The stag beetle is one of the largest beetles in the world, listed in the Red Book. Its size is about 9 cm, but in rare cases, especially large individuals can grow up to 12-14 cm.
- A dugout-digger, large individuals of which reach a size of 7 cm.
- The inhabitant of water is a beetle called a large water-lover. It grows to almost 5 cm.
- A scarab beetle, which reaches 4.1 cm in body length as an adult.
Red Book Representative
One of the largest beetles in the world, the deer, reaches a length of 8.8 centimeters. Currently, this beautiful and majestic representative of the animal world is on the verge of extinction in some regions of the planet. That is why it is included in the list of protected species in Europe and Asia. The insect is quite rare, but you can see it even on the territory of the Union countries of the CIS: in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine.
The stag beetle is a beautiful arthropod class of insects that belongs to the stag family. Most often, he prefers to live in oak forests or broad-leaved forests. All males have enlarged mandibles, which most often people call "horns." In this species, sexual dimorphism is quite developed: females are smaller than males and they completely lack mandibles. Beetle larvae develop in dead trees for a rather long period - from 4 to 6 years, before becoming a sexually mature individual. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the population of deer beetles has declined due to the development of new territories by humans, which leads to rapid deforestation.
