stag beetle

any lamellicorn beetle of the family Lucanidae, the males of which have large branched mandibles

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Stag Beetle

(Lucanus cervus), an insect of the family Lucanidae; one of the largest beetles of the fauna of the USSR. The male is up to 7 cm long (without the upper jaws); the head is very large, with protruding ridges and enormous mandibles that resemble the horns of a deer (hence the name). The mandibles are used in combat against other males during the mating season. The body is black, and the elytra are cinnamon brown to chestnut brown.

The stag beetle is distributed in broad-leaved forests; in the USSR it is found in the east as far as the southwestern Urals. The beetle feeds on sap that flows out of trees (mainly from oak); the larva lives in rotting wood. Development of the larva takes four to six years. The stag beetle is not a pest and is subject to conservation.

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References in periodicals archive

Laura Bower, conservation officer at PTES, said: "We have been running the Great Stag Hunt, and other conservation initiatives for stag beetles, for over 20 years.

FANCY A STAG WEEKEND? Volunteers needed to save rare beetle

Hasegawa, "Size-dependent precopulatory behavior as mate-securing tactic in the Japanese stag beetle, Prosopocoilus inclinatus (Coleoptera; Lucanidae)," Journal of Ethology, vol.

The First Workers of the Ant Camponotus obscuripes Area Different Allometric Morph with Relatively Long Antennae to Communicate with Other Larger Colony Members

Biological invasion caused by commercialization of stag beetles in Japan.

Nematodes that ride insects: unforeseen consequences of arriving species

* Children at Herries School in Cookham Dean, Berkshire became engrossed by beetles and even had their experiments included in a PhD thesis, after taking part in our stag beetle activities.

Endangered species in primary schools: (no, we don't mean teachers)

Ecologists from Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of York have developed a series of new methods to monitor stag beetle numbers including ginger lures to trap adult beetles and tiny microphones to detect sounds made by the larvae in their underground nests.

Ginger root helps conserve stag beetles

PAULSEN, M.J., 2010.- The stag beetles of southern South America (Coleoptera: Lucanidae).

Psilodon paschoali n. sp. y descripcion de la hembra de Psilodon aequinoctiale Buquet (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) en la region Norandina de Colombia

It is not only the fate of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, the swift parrot and the wielangta stag beetle which is at stake, but the future of all endangered wildlife.

Letter to the editor

According to Sonmez, the popularity of the Mushiking interactive card game, which has spawned offshoots like cartoon films and novels, has increased the demand for stag beetles in Japan.

Japanese appetite for Turkish stag beetle poses extinction threat

The AXIS 214 PTZ network camera and Milestone XProtect software funded by sponsors and digital surveillance integrator InCam and Communications Development Company, Jordan has enabled pupils to send live images from the stag beetles' wood piles across the school's network to be shared on PCs or classroom whiteboards.

Pupils at Herries School use network cameras from Axis to observe stag beetles

The Stag Beetle is not the scientific study of a curious creature.

Fearsome creatures and nature's Gothic

The first case came to light when two Japanese nationals were detained with 50 pairs of stag beetle at a forest in Palung in the Makawanpur District south of the Nepalese capital in 1999.

SCOPE: Japanese infatuation with 'cute' insects courts trouble in Nepal

Butterflies and a yin/yang symbol float encapsulated in circles; a lioness's skull and a stag beetle, creatures "red in tooth and claw" but innocent of moral evil, are placed below the feet of the dancers.

In the dark speech of praise and birth: the prints of Judith Anderson