The Hercules Beetle and Its Captive Breeding and Rearing
By Kay
INTRODUCTION
These pages present an example of the captive breeding and rearing of the Hercules Beetle, Dynastes hercules. In the wild, Dynastes hercules live widely in Central and South America. Although its classification may vary among taxonomists, one source says that the species contains 12 subspecies (Nagai, 2006):
1) hercules Linneaeus, 1758 (max. 172 mm; Guadeloupe and Dominica);
2) ecuatorianus Ohaus, 1913 (max. 165 mm; Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia);
3) reidi Chalumeau, 1977 (max. 105 mm; St. Lucia and Martinique);
4) lichyi Lachaume, 1985 (max. 170 mm; Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia);
5) occidentalis Lachaume, 1985 (max. 145 mm; Panama, Colombia and Ecuador);
6) septentrionalis Lachaume, 1985 (max. 153 mm; Central America);
7) paschoali Grossi et Arnaud, 1993 (max. 145 mm; Brazil);
8) tuxtlaensis Moro'n, 1993 (max. 110 mm; Mexico);
9) bleuzeni Silvestre et Dechambre, 1995 (max. 151 mm; Venezuela);
10) trinidadensis Chalumeau et Reid, 1995 (max. 137 mm; Trinidad and Tobago);
11) morishimai Nagai, 2002 (max. 120 mm; Bolivia); and
12) takakuwai Nagai, 2002 (max. 130 mm; Brazil).
Dynastes hercules is considered by many as the longest living beetle in the world: 172 mm is cited as the maximum length of a wild-caught male imago of Guadeloupe (Col. Kawanami). In the author's country, Japan, there are several types of substrates available for captive breeding and rearing of pet beetles and hence, by using them, some breeders have reported their captive rearing of Dynastes hercules males from eggs or larvae (L3 weighing up to about 150 grams) to imagoes of over 150-165 mm in length (Fujita, 2005). The following discussion forcuses mainly on ssp. hercules, first introducing its natural history and then emphasizing its captive breeding and rearing method to win a good result.
