If you ever get the chance to ride a motorcycle on the roads of Africa, be sure to wear a helmet. The fact is that the heaviest insects in the world—goliath beetles (Goliathus)—are actively flying over African lands. Their body length can be 12 centimeters, and their weight can reach 47 grams. We can say that this huge beetle is larger and heavier than a Kalashnikov assault rifle cartridge, so if it collides with a person’s head at high speed, it will certainly pierce the skull. These insects are of great interest to scientists, so over many years of studying them, they have learned a lot of interesting things about them. They are notable not only for their large size, but also for their taste preferences and reproduction - in order to win the attention of the female, the beetles organize massive fights.
Goliath beetles are real weaponry
Description and features
Goliaths, like most other beetles, have a rigid first pair of wings (elytra). The membranous lower wings are stored underneath them. Goliaths have a peculiarity - a cutout on the sides of the elytra. Through them the beetles release their lower wings. There is no need to open the elytra in flight.
This design somewhat simplifies the task of lifting the massive, 100-gram body of the beetle into the air. An adult male can boast this weight. Entomologists claim that the maximum weight of a goliath reaches 110 g. That is, the beetle is heavier than many birds.
The beetle uses its wings quite often. But it mainly moves using its legs, each of which ends in a pair of tenacious claws. They are a kind of goliath climbing equipment. The beetle uses its claws to move along tree branches.
The male has a small Y-shaped horn on his head. It serves as a weapon in the fight against competitors. Clashes between males occur over females and feeding territory. Females do not even have a hint of a horn; they are not aimed at fighting. With the help of their heads, females dig holes in the ground where they lay eggs. Therefore, the head of the females acquired a wedge-shaped ending.
A characteristic feature of all species of coleopterous goliaths is the contrasting pattern on the pronotum, consisting of a white background and black longitudinal stripes. Some species have black and white patterns on their elytra. Nature refused females such decoration.
In general, goliaths differ little from other beetles from the subfamily of bronze beetles. Goliaths have an oblong body, a medium-sized head, much narrower than the pronotum. Directed forward and slightly downward. There are 6 limbs, the forelimbs are the most developed, especially in males.
Emerald cockroach wasp
This insect grows up to 2 cm in size. It has a narrow body and a characteristic color - bright green or blue-green with a metallic sheen.
To breed wasps, they use cockroaches, which are injected with paralytic poison. When the prey stops moving, the female carries it into the hole and lays larvae. After some time, new individuals appear.
This species has virtually no contact with humans and, as a rule, does not bite.
Kinds
The genus of goliath beetles includes 5 species.
- Goliathus goliatus is the nominate species. The common name is goliath beetle . Widely distributed in the equatorial belt of Africa, from Cameroon to Uganda. The pectoral shield (pronotum) is black with whitish longitudinal stripes. The elytra are dark brown. The sizes are maximum for this genus of beetles.
- Goliathus albosignatus is a species common in southern Africa. It can be found in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania. It is smaller in size than the common goliath (Goliathus goliatus). An adult beetle does not exceed 70 mm. Females are smaller - up to 50 mm.
- Goliathus regius is a species that has colonized western equatorial Africa, from Guinea to Niger. Similar to the common goliath, has the same dimensions. A very dark longitudinal wide line is drawn on the pronotum (thoracic shield). The elytra are decorated with a black and white pattern, which is demonstrated by the Goliath beetle in the photo .
- Goliathus cacicus - the range of these goliaths is located in the west of equatorial Africa. The species is subject to significant sexual dimorphism. The pronotum of males is light brown, with black stripes. The elytra are smoky with pearlescent tints. Females are mostly black. The maximum size of males reaches 90 mm. Females are somewhat smaller.
- Goliathus orientalis - lives in central Africa, in the desert Congolese territories. The main color of the cover is white; a complex pattern of black spots and lines is applied on top of the background. The size of adult males approaches 100 mm.
Dorylus ants
Dorylus ants are considered the most numerous species of nomadic insects in Africa. Despite the fact that they are not carriers of infectious diseases, they are classified as dangerous insects due to their aggressiveness.
Dorylus ants are predominantly found in the central African region. The number of one group of these insects sometimes reaches over 20 million individuals. They move through the hills, overcoming trees and bushes in search of food. Their movement in columns is largely due to effective protection from possible attacks.
Dorylus ants are capable of attacking any living creatures in their path: mammals, birds, invertebrates and even humans. All thanks to powerful, well-developed jaws. In one foray, these ants are capable of killing more than one thousand animals. Moreover, they attack the nests of other insect species, completely destroying them. Dorylus ants are attracted to moist and soft areas of the body (lips and nostrils), through which they enter the body of a mammal and move to vital organs, which causes death. There have been cases when a large column of insects turned the victim’s body into a skeleton in just a few hours.
Lifestyle and habitat
The main biotope is tropical forest. A warm and humid forest environment is where the goliath beetle lives and reproduces. During its existence, a beetle goes through all the phases characteristic of an insect. It begins life as an egg, from which a larva emerges, which turns into an adult.
The life of a beetle is most studied when it goes through the adult phase. The insect, which weighs three times the weight of an adult sparrow, spends almost its entire life on the middle and upper floors of the tropical forest, flying from one fruit-bearing tree to another.
Goliath is trying to get enough. The beetle's flight requires a lot of energy, which it obtains by following a fruit diet. What the goliath beetle eats contains a lot of sugar, which is known to be a good source of calories.
Having gained the necessary mass during the period of fruit abundance, the beetle moves on to its main purpose - it tries to acquire offspring. Having found a mate and done everything that is required to procreate, the beetle ends its life.
Meaning for humans
The diet includes plant foods, but goliaths do not harm agriculture. The flight of beetles begins late, when pollination comes to an end. In addition, when they fly up to a flower, they are smeared with pollen, thus carrying out pollination.
If you collide head-on with a goliath beetle, you can get seriously injured, since thanks to its huge dimensions, the beetle turns into a military projectile.
Nutrition
Goliath beetles find food among trees. They are most attracted to overripe fruits. The African forest regularly provides its inhabitants with nutritious berries and fruits. In addition, tree trunks often exude sap. His goliath beetles love fruit just as much.
The tastes of the larvae are not so harmless. They absorb half-decomposed substrate. They can attack and eat their relative - a weaker larva. Entomologists suspect goliath caterpillars of predation, that is, they prey on other insects. The goliath beetle larva also does not ignore the bodies of dead insects and small mammals
What do these insects eat?
Goliaths are omnivores. The main food of both the larvae and the beetles themselves is tree sap, overripe fruits and seeds. However, the goliath is not averse to snacking on larvae, both strangers and its own.
It is not only adults who eat weaker relatives and larvae who exhibit a tendency towards cannibalism. The larvae themselves also eat their weaker younger relatives. However, this does not happen all the time; the basis of the beetle’s nutrition is what the tree on which it lives gives it.
Reproduction and lifespan
Reproduction is the main goal of a beetle's life. The existence of an insect in the form of an adult is intended for mating and laying eggs. All other processes - food, movement, struggle for a place in the sun - are aimed at carrying out procreation activities.
At the end of the rainy season, the beetle finds a mate. In April-May the beetles unite. After 4-5 weeks, the female digs a small tunnel in moist soil, where she lays several eggs. Natural incubation of eggs occurs in the heated soil.
The emerging larva begins to grow rapidly. The caterpillar leads a semi-terrestrial lifestyle. Periodically burrows into the ground and comes out. It feeds in the depth of the substrate and on the surface. At the end of its development, the larva reaches 150 mm in length and weighs about 100 g. Having gained the required weight, the caterpillar finally buries itself for pupation.
The pupa will spend the entire dry period underground. The first rains help metamorphosis take place - the pupa turns into a beetle. The total lifespan of a goliath is slightly more than a year. At the same time, in the imago phase, that is, when the goliath is really a beetle, it spends about 5-6 months.
Palm weevils
These insects have a body length of 2-5 cm, it is oblong, slightly flattened on top. In nature, you can find beetles of the following colors: red-brown, brown or black.
Insects live in tropical and equatorial regions of Africa. At the end of the 20th century, thanks to human activity, the beetle population spread to the Middle East and northern Africa. In 2014, the beetle was brought to Russia.
The insect feeds on living plant leaves. After the larvae are laid, they continue to develop in the bark of drying or rotting trees. The cycle length is 3-4 months.
The beetle spoils palm trees. The larvae can eat the palm from the inside throughout the year.
Contents of the goliath beetle and its price
Keeping goliath beetles is not difficult. Usually one pair of insects lives in one terrarium. Goliaths exhibit sexual dimorphism. It is expressed in size and color differences. The easiest way to identify a male is by the presence of a Y-shaped horn on his head.
Crowded housing of beetles is undesirable. Males will show aggression towards each other, and females, when digging holes to lay eggs, can damage existing clutches. A plexiglass box with sides no less than 60 cm is quite a decent home for a pair of goliaths.
The bottom of the terrarium is lined with a 30-centimeter layer of substrate. A mixture that includes 60% sawdust and 40% coconut flakes is suitable. A small driftwood is placed into the thickness of the wood-coconut conglomerate. The resulting soil is lightly compacted and moistened.
The terrarium is decorated, turning it into a piece of tropical forest. First of all, achieve the required temperature and humidity. Beetles prefer life at temperatures of 22–27 °C and 60–80% humidity. In addition, their territory must be illuminated for at least 12 hours a day.
Owners of terrariums usually show their design talents. Install driftwood, house plants in pots, stones, pebbles and the like. Everything is as usual. You just need to remember that a beetle that has turned over on its back and is unable to catch its paw on anything will ultimately die.
Moist (but not wet) soil, old, rotten driftwood are a good stimulus for awakening the parental instinct in beetles. An adult couple quickly finds a common language and approximately 4 weeks after rapprochement, the female lays eggs.
A signal that the clutch will soon be laid is the female digging vertical passages. At the end of the burrow, the female compacts the substrate and lays eggs in the resulting lump. Next, you can do two things. Place the eggs in separate incubators or wait until the larvae hatch, then separate them from each other.
Small plastic jars with the same substrate as in the main terrarium serve as incubators and containers for growing. The jars should be closed with a lid with holes. In such a way that the larva cannot crawl out of the fallen container.
The larvae should be kept individually for a simple reason - they can easily eat each other. Their appetite is usually satisfied with semi-soft cat food. The amount of feed is determined experimentally. Typically 2-8 pellets per day depending on caterpillar size.
A decrease in appetite to almost zero indicates the approach of pupation. For pupation, each larva is provided with a separate 2-liter container. Soil is poured into it - a mixture of river sand and coconut shavings. Burying itself in the ground, the larva pupates and after 5-6 months becomes a full-fledged beetle.
Having raised the first goliath beetles, the owner thinks about selling them. The thoughts are quite logical, since one larva can bring the owner 1000 rubles. The African goliath beetle (an insect in the adult phase) sells for 3,000 rubles. and higher. Given the ongoing craving for exotic creatures, there is a demand for goliath beetles.
African locust
The desert or African locust, the photo of which is presented below, lives in the deserts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Outwardly, it is in many ways similar to the common locust. The body length ranges from 4 to 6 cm. There are short, dense antennae on the head. The eyes are dark. The body is a swamp color with a brown tint allowing the locust to hide among the plants.
The chirping sound that an insect makes by rubbing its hind legs on its wings can mean calling a partner, warning relatives of danger, or be threatening in nature. The African locust, a photo of which is presented in the section, is very voracious; raids in swarms can destroy the entire crop. Their speed with a tailwind reaches 40 km per hour, turning the hordes into a desert hurricane.
The female desert locust gives birth to offspring up to five times a year. The insect lays eggs coated with secretions in a hole dug in the ground. Over time, it dries out, forming a hard shell. One clutch can contain up to 150 eggs. After about a month, larvae emerge from them. After emerging on the surface for a month, the insect is subject to molting up to five times, then it turns into a sexually mature locust capable of bearing offspring.
Interesting Facts
- Evolution has given insects several survival strategies. The goliath larva (caterpillar) has adopted a common method of preserving life - bunker existence, that is, they spend most of their lives buried in the substrate.
- The beetles (insects in the imago phase) found a very unusual option: they became huge. There is no predator willing to attack the elephant. In the same way, there are few insectivorous birds that can swallow a 100-gram beetle dressed in a chitinous shell. Gigantism is the rarest mode of survival among insects.
- Goliaths are not only big and heavy, they are quite strong. An ant can lift 50 times its body weight. The average person is about half their own weight. The Goliath beetle, in terms of carrying capacity, is closer to a person than to an ant. He can move an object weighing several times heavier than the beetle itself.
- The large weight of the Goliath beetle made scientists and engineers think about its flight capabilities. Calculations have shown that large individuals should theoretically not fly. The area of their wings and the frequency of flapping are insufficient to create the necessary lift. But they fly.
- A large beetle gives birth to huge larvae. Tribes living in the African equatorial forests (in particular, the pygmies) take advantage of this. The larvae weigh slightly less than the beetles themselves. As much as 100 g of protein food, swarming underfoot, is a godsend for local residents. Collecting goliath caterpillars has become one of the ways to combat hunger.
Goliath beetles are amazing creatures. Their sizes are unique. For millions of years they lived in Africa without attracting attention. In our century, they have become frequent inhabitants of terrariums. People probably like the silent, crawling creature, the size and shape of a computer mouse.
Triatomine bugs
African insects of this species are blood-sucking. Bedbugs inhabit North America, but some species are found in Africa, Asia and the Australian mainland.
Triatomine bedbugs are attracted to body heat and the scent of their prey, as well as light. As a rule, they settle near the habitats of potential victims. This type of bug is often called “kissing” bugs for its habit of digging into the skin of the lips of a sleeping person. Sometimes the person bitten in the morning does not even realize that he has become a victim of a bug.
The body, in turn, reacts with severe irritation of the skin, nausea, diarrhea, swelling, difficulty breathing, and a drop in blood pressure.
Triatomine bugs carry the serious disease Chagas, which kills up to 12,000 people every year. This disease becomes chronic. It manifests itself as an enlargement of the ventricles of the heart, esophagus and colon. During an exacerbation of the disease, enlarged lymph nodes, shortness of breath, and breathing problems are observed. Failure to provide timely assistance leads to heart problems and subsequently death.
Burrowing cockroach
Another name for the burrowing cockroach is the rhinoceros cockroach. Unlike other insects of this species, arthropods are not pests and perform an important function in the ecosystem, namely, they destroy fallen leaves and rotting particles of vegetation. A burrowing cockroach cannot be called aggressive. Under normal conditions, it does not bite and sits calmly in a person’s palm. However, if you press him down, he will squirm and possibly pinch painfully with his jaws. The length of an adult insect is 8-10 cm.
Bigtooth staghorn
Large-toothed staghorns inhabit the territory of the South American continent and prefer to settle in tropical rainforests or mangroves. They are distinguished by their enormous size and powerful jaws, designed for plucking leaves, berries, digging the soil and protecting them from natural enemies. The largest beetle was caught in the province of Satipo (Peru) in 2010. Its length is almost 17 cm. The preserved copy was sold to a private collector for $1,500, who subsequently resold it abroad for three times as much.
Dung beetle
The huge black insect lives in the Far East, the Kuril Islands, China, Korea, Japan and the Caucasus. The body length of an adult reaches 4 cm. Dung beetles and thorn-bearing dung beetles are listed in the Red Book as an endangered species and are protected by environmental organizations. Their feature was a wide chest, primitive mouthparts and short antennae. Meanwhile, insects have strong paws, with which they dig the ground in search of food and roll earthen balls.
Chalcosoma atlas
A large beetle from the lamellar beetle family, the body length of which varies between 8-11 cm. Females are characterized by the presence of two large horns on the prespinum, used for protection and digging the soil. Males have an additional horn. Insects use it to fight rivals during the mating period and defend themselves against natural enemies. Chalcosoma atlas inhabit the territory of Southeast Asia and Malaysia. The name of the beetles comes from the name of the mighty titan from ancient Greek mythology - Atlas.
Longhorned chirus
Xixuthrus heros is endemic to the Republic of Fiji. For many years it was considered extinct until scientists discovered several adult specimens in 2013. The chirus beetle is a large creature with strong elytra and long antennae. The average body length of a male is 17 cm, females are up to 15 cm. Insects feed on plant foods and occasionally eat small midges. They have a hard time withstanding climate change and in captivity in most cases die. Xixuthrus heros is listed in the Red Book as an endangered species.
Dynastes grantii
One of the largest beetles in the world, its length exceeds 8.5 cm. Males have two huge horns with teeth and hairs on the inside. They inhabit northern Mexico, Chihuahua, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Dynastes grantii eats fermented fruit juice, hard bark, and rotting vegetables and fruits. Insects do not climb trees; they prefer to look for food on the surface of the soil.
Relic Lumberjack
The relic woodcutter can also be called the Ussuri relic barbel. This is the largest representative of beetles living in Russia and the CIS countries. The majority of relict woodcutters are in the mixed and broad-leaved forests of the Ussuri Nature Reserve. The body length of an adult arthropod is 11 cm. Over the past 10 years, the population of the species has declined sharply. The reason for this was active deforestation and the catching of mature individuals for collection.
Lumberjack Titan
The titan woodcutter is the largest beetle in the world, distributed in Colombia, Ecuador, the Republic of Suriname, and the Amazon rainforest. The length of an adult insect often exceeds 15 cm. Entomologist from Germany Martin Jacobi caught the longest titan lumberjack on Earth (22 cm). Such a rare specimen did not fall into the hands of scientists, since Martin released the beetle into the wild. No arthropod of this breed has yet been found longer than this.
The Asian hornet is the largest representative of the Hymenoptera order. It lives in the Primorsky Territory, China, Laos and Thailand. The insect's body length is 5-6 cm, and its wingspan is from 7 cm.
