''Serrognathus titanus'' is a species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

in the family

Lucanidae Stag beetles are a family of about 1,200 species of beetles in the family Lucanidae, currently classified in four subfamilies.Smith, A.B.T. (2006). A review of the family-group names for the superfamily Scarabaeoidea (Coleoptera) with corrections ...

. It was described by

Jean Baptiste Boisduval Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the Société entomol ...

in 1835. Huang and Chen (2013) separated ''Serognathus'' from the genus '' Dorcus'' by representing morphological characters and DNA analysis.

Description

Males measure including

mandibles In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

; females . It has an elongated, somewhat flat body dull black with blackish antennae and legs. Male's antler-like jaws have small teeth along inner edge and a pair of big teeth toward the bottom, and are forked at end. The head of a large male reaches nearly the length of its

prothorax The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

and abdomen combined.

Life cycle

Adults can be seen from May to August. They feed on tree juice, especially of ''

Quercus An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably '' ...

'' species. Females lay eggs on the underground part of fallen oaks. The eggs hatch in about a month and the larvae feed on rotten wood. The larval period lasts about one year. The complete life cycle can last approximately from 1 to 2 years.

Distribution

This species is widely distributed in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India, Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea.

Habitat

It mainly inhabits tropical

rainforests Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...

and

temperate forest A temperate forest is a forest found between the tropical and boreal regions, located in the temperate zone. It is the second largest biome on our planet, covering 25% of the world's forest area, only behind the boreal forest, which covers abou ...

s from lowland to mountains.

Human uses

This beetle has some commercial value and export from some regions is criminalized. There are some Asian cultures that assign aphrodisiac properties to this insect. However, most are imported for

sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...

, decorative show, or to be kept as an

exotic pet An exotic pet is a pet which is relatively rare or unusual to keep, or is generally thought of as a wild species rather than as a domesticated pet. The definition varies by culture, location, and over time—as animals become firmly enough esta ...

. This stag beetle is also popular pet in Asia and Europe.

Gallery

File:Lucanidae - Dorcus titanus-002.JPG, Male File:Larva of Hirata-Kun.jpg, Larva File:Lucanidae - Dorcus titanus.JPG, Museum specimen File:Eurytrachelus.titanus.jpg, Mounted specimen from

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

(Celebes)

Subspecies

Hiroshi Fujita, a Japanese collector from the Mushi-sha insect shop, described over 20 new subspecies of ''S. titanus'' in his book "The Lucanid Beetles of the World". His subspecies included 11 subspecies in Japan alone. He also further divided ''S. titanus titanus'' specimens found in the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...

into ''S. titanus yasuokai'', ''S. titanus typhon'', ''S. titanus nobuyukii'' and others. Currently 24 named subspecies are extant with a further 15 undescribed subspecies identified by DNA analysis: Dorcus titanus platymelus sjh

*''Dorcus titanus castanicolor'' Motschulsky, 1861 - Japan ( Tsushima), Korea (Korean Peninsula and Jeju-do), Mainland China *''Dorcus titanus daitoensis'' Fujita & Ichikawa, 1986 - Japan (

Daitō Islands The are an archipelago consisting of three isolated coral islands in the Philippine Sea southeast of Okinawa. The islands have a total area of and a population of 2,107. Administratively, the whole group belongs to Shimajiri District of Okinawa ...

) *''Dorcus titanus elegans'' (Boileau, 1899) - Japan *''Dorcus titanus fafner'' - (Kriesche, 1920) Vietnam *''Dorcus titanus hachijoensis'' Fujita & Okuda, 1989 - Japan *''Dorcus titanus imperialis'' (Fujita, 2010) - Philippines *''Dorcus titanus karasuyamai'' (Baba, 1999) - Japan *''Dorcus titanus mindanaoensis'' (Fujita, 2010) -

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

*''Dorcus titanus nobuyukii'' (Fujita, 2010) - Malaysia *''Dorcus titanus okinawanus'' (Kriesche, 1922) -

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

*''Dorcus titanus okinoerabuensis'' Fujita & Ichikawa, 1985 - Japan *''Dorcus titanus palawanicus'' Lacroix, 1984 - Philippines (

Palawan Island Palawan is the largest island of the province of Palawan in the Philippines and fifth-largest by area and tenth-most populous island of the country, with a total population of 994,101 as of 2020 census. The north west coast of the island is alon ...

) *''Dorcus titanus pilifer'' (Snellen van Vollenhoven, 1860) - Japan *''Dorcus titanus platymelus'' (Saunders, 1854) - Mainland China *''Dorcus titanus sakishimanus'' (Nomura, 1964) - Japan (

Sakishima Islands The (or 先島群島, ''Sakishima-guntō'') (Okinawan language, Okinawan: ''Sachishima'', Miyakoan language, Miyako: ''Saksїzїma'', Yaeyama language, Yaeyama: ''Sakїzїma'', Yonaguni language, Yonaguni: ''Satichima'') are an archipelago loca ...

) *''Dorcus titanus sika'' (Kriesche, 1920) - Taiwan *''Dorcus titanus takaraensis'' Fujita & Ichikawa, 1985 - Japan ( Takara Islands) *''Dorcus titanus tatsutai'' (Shiokawa, 2001) - Japan *''Dorcus titanus titanus'' (Boisduval, 1835) - Indonesia *''Dorcus titanus tokunoshimaensis'' Fujita & Ichikawa, 1985 - Japan *''Dorcus titanus typhon'' (Boileau, 1905) - Philippines *''Dorcus titanus typhoniformis'' (Nagel, 1924) - China (

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

) *''Dorcus titanus westermanni'' (Hope, 1842) - India, Bhutan, Bangladesh *''Dorcus titanus yasuokai'' (Fujita, 2010) - Indonesia (

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

) * BOLD:ACG9587 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9588 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9589 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9590 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9701 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9702 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9703 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9799 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9972 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9973 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9974 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9990 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:ACG9991 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:AEA4279 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:AEA4916 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'') * BOLD:AEA7644 (cf. ''Serrognathus titanus'')

References

*Mizunuma T. & Nagai S. (1994) The Lucanid Beetles of the World. Mushi-Sha's Iconographic Series of Insects, Ed. H. Fujita, Japan. Vol. I *Huang, H. & Chen, C.-C. 2013: Stag beetles of China II

External links

Photos of ''Dorcus titanus daitoensis''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q874874 Lucaninae Beetles of Asia Beetles described in 1835 Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Boisduval