Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Horrifying Wednesday : Hercules Beetle

Sorry about missing yesterday's post, we had some 'technical difficulties' that included restarting my computer. After I couldn't access this site, I went to "downforeveryoneorjustme.com", and they told me that this website was down. Probably because they were worried that I would write my Horrifying Tuesday segment, and would be too afraid to work. Probably.

Pictured: You

The Hercules Beetle is one of those species, that you wish wasn't so darn resistant to a palm smash. You can't get rid of these fiends with a simple smack of a newspaper. Unless you spend the entire day smacking away with a hammer.



This special beetle is the most well-known and largest rhinoceros beetles. It's even been recorded for males of the species to reach 6.75 inches. Imagine a normal beetle, about two or three inches long, then imagine that same beetle two times larger, with a mean right hook. Only about two other species are larger in length, but they're not as cool.

Pictured: Real Hercules Beetle *Minor adjustments may have been made*

The reason it's so darn big, is reasonably because of their horns. What do they use their horns for you ask? Not for sticking marshmallows into bright yellow campfires to make smores, I can tell you that.

The Hercules Beetle uses it's massive horns during flight. Not for aerodynamic wizardry though. They would physically pick up their foe in mid-flight, and slam them into the ground, breaking their prey's head. Not exactly pleasant to have your brains oozing out of your skull after getting head-slammed into the pavement.

"Why yes, I guess I do have a large horn"

How could it possibly do such a thing though? Also, why is it called the 'Hercules' Beetle? Two birds with one stone. The beetle is one of the strongest creatures on earth for its size. It can carry almost 850 times of its own body weight. If that applied for you and me, we would be able to carry 102,000 pounds.

Before they're even animal-murdering wrestlers, they were young larvae. The larval stage of this specific species, can last up to one to two years. Most of that time is spent tunneling rotting wood for food and presumably decapitating other larvae for practice. Just to put the icing on the cake, they aren't very pleasant to look at.

Delicious.