Stage beetles live almost their entire lives underground, but what does a stag beetle eat when it finally comes out as an adult? Let’s find out.
A stag beetle is a rare and beautiful insect known for its long and threatening mandibles. However, these large jaws are more bark than bite.
What Do Stag Beetles Eat? It depends on where they are in their lifecycle. While the larva of the stag beetle feeds on dead wood, including tree barks and saps, the adult doesn’t require eating and uses up the energy stored from larva food.
To learn more about what these interesting creatures feed on, continue reading.
What Is a Stag Beetle?
Stag beetles come from the age of the Jurassic Period, about 150 to 160 million years ago.
There are about 1200 stag beetle species worldwide, but you’ll find most of them in Europe and North America.
Stag beetles are quite a rare find these days. Collectors pay thousands of dollars for them.
They are experiencing decades of decline (due to the loss of habitat and food sources). For insect lovers, the best place to look for them is the UK.
What Does It Look Like?
Stag beetles are giant insects with a hard outer shell and two pairs of wings. The average length of an adult male stag beetle is between one and two inches.
However, the giraffe stage beetle, commonly found in southern Asia, can grow up to five inches long and is one of the world’s largest beetle species.
The most prominent feature of stag beetle is their mandibles (1.4-2.1 inches), which resemble the antlers of a deer.
With these massive jaws, an average adult beetle can be up to 3 inches long, making it the largest beetle in the specie in Europe.
Stag beetles are usually black or brown, but some species, like the Australian rainbow stag beetle, may also be colorful.
The male adult beetle is larger than females, primarily due to bigger mandibles. The stag beetle larvae, however, are even larger than the male beetles, with an average length of three inches.
Where Does It Live?
There are more than a thousand species of stag beetles across the world. However, you will find the most popular kind of stage beetle species in the UK:
- Lucanus Cervus,
- Dorcus paralellapipidus (relatively smaller than Lucanus Cervus), and
- Sinodendron cylindrical (also known as rhinoceros beetle).
In the US, you can find the cottonwood stag beetle in the state of Arizona on the southwestern side. A variety of these beetles also live in Australia and southern Asia.
Stag beetles can be found in areas with less rainfall and high temperatures since they spend most of their lives underground.
Thus, a hot and humid climate is good for the survival of these species.
What Does It Eat?
A typical stag beetle diet includes fluid from tree sap, tree bark, tree stump, wood, or decomposed fruit.
They usually rely on sweet fluids, but there is a difference between what stag beetles eat as an adult and as larvae. Here are the differences.
As Larva
The larva uses its jaws to cut through dead wood to find the splinters and looks for the white rot to feed on.
Amongst the trees, larva usually likes the rotten wood of oak trees but would also eat up willow, ash, lime, sycamore, horse chestnut, etc.
Since they eat only dead wood, the shrubs and plants remain unharmed but don’t spare organisms like fungi.
As Adults
Stag beetles spend most of their lives underground as larvae. When they finally become adults, they only have a few weeks of their lives left.
They do not eat much during their adult life. They use up the energy of the food they eat during the larval stage, and their primary concern is to reproduce.
What Eats It?
Stag beetles have predators like crows, foxes, lizards, amphibians, small mammals, kestrels, and birds.
Depending on the insect’s habitat, the predators may also include bats, raccoons, hedgehogs, skunks, moles, rodents, snakes, frogs, fish, dragonflies, ants, spiders, even other beetles, etc.
Predators often look for them during their mating season since they are vulnerable at that time.
Unique Mating Habits
The massive mandibles of the male stag beetle are used to fight other male contenders during the mating season.
With their antler-like mouths, they fight the other male aggressively to remove him from the way so it can mate with female stag beetles.
The male uses its mandibles as a warning signal to the competitors by raising its body to stand on its hind legs.
It can aggressively pick up and throw the opponent to the ground using the same posture, much like a wrestler. The winner of these battles is the one who gets to mate with the females.
If the rivals are endowed with equal-sized mandibles, these battles can last quite a long while. But in the end, it’s almost always the one with the bigger claws who wins.
Size does matter, at least in the insect world!
Apart from eliminating its rivals, the male beetle also uses its mandibles to court the female. The male circles the female with the “antlers.” while mating.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I feed a stag beetle?
An adult stag beetle usually relies on the energy stored from the food consumed during the larval stage. They don’t live for longer than a few weeks.
A larva feeds on dead wood, including tree sap, tree bark, etc., of trees like oak, horse chestnut, and willow.
How do you keep a pet stag beetle?
Keep the beetle in a plastic or glass box with humid soil and good ventilation. Keep the temperature hot and humid, and ensure the box is at least five times larger than the beetle.
Make sure to spray some water in the jar regularly and feed them beetle jelly once or twice a day.
What do stag beetles need to survive?
Stag beetles spend most of their lives underground and, thus, survive easily in a hot and humid environment. They prefer to live in areas with low rainfall and high temperatures.
Females prefer light or flaky soil where they can easily lay their eggs, so they can easily dig out of the soil after pupating.
How long do stag beetles live?
Stag beetles can live up to 7 years, which is considerably longer when compared to other insects. However, the stag beetle spends most of its life as a larva and stays underground.
They come out of their cocoon after six years as pupa and turn into adults after a few weeks.
Wrap Up
We hope this article helped you learn something about these beautiful creatures. With a rapid decline in their population, stag beetles are becoming harder to find every day.
These insects feed on a variety of dead wood, helping to decompose it. They don’t cause us any harm, and we are the ones causing much harm to them.
Thank you for reading!
