Have you ever what an insect is the largest on the planet?It is known that the largest mammals - whales.Among land animals - an elephant.And who is the champion among the beetles?Entomologists are still arguing about who to award the palm to: Hercules beetle, or woodcutter.It's all about how to approach this issue.
Hercules basically all reach 17 cm. Most of woodcutters have a length of 15-16 cm (with jaws), but sometimes come across individuals, and even up to twenty to twenty-two centimeters!Just imagine: titan beetle beetle reaches the size of a guinea pig!There are people who panic afraid of insects, imagine their horror at the sight of the giant.
However, not only the size of catches horror insect.Titan beetle armed with two powerful zhevalami that if you want easy as pliers, breaking a pencil.In addition, a powerful monster can fly and, to top it all, is nocturnal.Well at least that his temper calm and peaceful.But still unpleasant night in the jungle when you sit on the head of one the size of a hamster and a tusk like a rhinoceros.Someone thus falls into a state of shock, and someone is willing to pay for such a giant shell pressed up to a thousand dollars.
beetle woodcutter lives across the Amazon.It met in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Bolivia, and in the middle of Brazil.It is found in humid forests longline.He is extremely sensitive to light and does not come across in light traps, which are arranged entomologists.Explore the beetle is difficult also because most of his life he spent in a state of larvae, and he brought the giant to be just 3-5 weeks.And nocturnal titanium plays into the hands of scientists.Happy insect slept in rotten stumps or under foliage, and at dusk creeps up the plants on a raised platform to spread its wings and fly.
beetle woodcutter is also interesting that, despite his terrible to chew, he does not eat anything.The nutrients accumulated in the period of youth (when he was a larva), is enough to stretch for about a month, lay eggs and die.Engaged in the study of insect scientists can not come to an agreement about how the beetle larvae look.To learn how to develop caterpillars also do not know anything because they never learned to catch the eye.However, the Indians of the Amazon, which in the case of beetle larvae consumed in food, argue that the caterpillars are about 25-36 centimeters in length, and they need to look at the roots or stumps of dead or dying of old trees.Pupa caterpillars also are in the soil.
How long beetle woodcutter lives in the state of larvae and the number of days spent in dolls, nobody knows.The Indians were not interested in this matter, and scientists can not find these larvae.However, more or less studied adult insects.As already mentioned, a giant grows to only a few.Large specimens are female.Their brown shell brown or pitch-brown in color, and on both sides of the pronotum can see three threateningly pointed spike.These combat "decorations" are only demonstrative repel enemies.Over emarginate eyes beetle are long mustache almost half the insect's body.
beetle woodcutter - an extremely rare insect.Due to the fact that the natives of this giant caterpillars consume food, their population is rapidly declining.We have relatives beetle, however, more modest growth.However, they are on the verge of extinction.Fiji natives entirely "eaten" Moustache - endemics of these places.His specimens can now be seen only in dried form, in some collections.In the middle zone of the distant relative of the Amazonian giant can be found in the Crimea, in the face of the Crimean ground beetles.
