Gilbert LACHAUME 1: DYNASTES - MEGASOMA – GOLOFA SCIENCES NAT 2, rue Andre Mellenne VENETTE Les Coleopteres du ulonde The Beetles of the World Volume 5 : Dvnastini premiere partie n° ISBN : 2-85724-028-7 Premiere edition : 1985 Copyright texte et planches : Sciences Nat Photographies : routes photographies Guy BOULOUX, sauf planches A & B : photos G. LACHAUME, planche C : photos R-P. DECHAMBRE Imprime par : Imprimerie de Compiegne, rue Nicephore Niepce, 60200 Compiegne Depot legal : avril 1985 Dans la meme collection : - deja parus I : Batocerini 1 par Jacques RIGOUT (ouvrage epuise - deuxieme edition en preparation) II : Batocerini 2 par Jacques RIGOUT III : Goliathini 1 par Gilbert LACHAUME IV : Odontolabini 1 par Jean-Pierre LACROIX - a paraitre VI : Goliathini 2 par Vincent ALLARD LES COLEOPTERES DU MONDE Volume 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all those people who have helped me to produce this work, particularly - Thierry PORION(France), Georges JEANNOT(France) and J.P. SALTIN(West Germany) - Dr. M. UHLIG of the Museum fair Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universitat of Berlin (East Germany) for lending the type specimens of Golofa testudinarius and Golofa minutus. - Dr. M.E. BACCHUS of the British Museum (Natural History) - Dr. R-P. DECHAMHRE, head of the Coleoptera department of the Laboratoire d'Entomologie of the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris, who placed the majority of the specimens shown in this book at my disposal, provided me with many papers and who, additionally, advised me during the writing of this book. - Guy BOULOUX for his excellent photographs - translator Brian MORRIS for the care that he has taken in preparing the English version of my text. INTRODUCTION The Dynastidae family comprises about 1600 currently known species. Some fifty of these species are remarkable because of the hypertelic development of the armature in the males and are amongst the largest Scarabaeoidea in the world In this first volume, which deals with the most spetacular representatives of the family, the three exclusively American genera Dynastes, Megasoma and Golofa, are treated exhaustively. In the second volume, which is being prepared, all the remaining species of the Dynastini tribe, as well as most of the Agaocephalini, are dealt with. In order not to limit the book simply to the spectacular species and to give, therefore, ~a fairer idea of the whole of the family, the most characteristic representatives of the other principal genera will be shown. Readers interested in more detailed facts about the systematics of the Dynastids are referred to the very detailed monographs of S. ENDRODI. PLAN OF THE WORK The presentation is analogous with the other volumes of Beetles of the World. For each species, therefore, the following information is given A: The references to its description. That is, author, year of appearance, title of the publication, volume, page number. Starting with this volume, the abbreviations used for periodicals conform to those established by the British Museum (Natural History), third edition, 1980. S: Synonyms. The list is limited to citing the first author who introduced the said synonym. D: A summary description. The principal characteristics which allow the species being studied to be differentiated from another close to it are noted. R: Its degree of rarity. It has been appraised as of this moment in time. Future discoveries either of biotope or of methods of capturing specimens of species which are today very rare, could drastically modify the estimated evaluations which are given. M: Its size. The greatest possible distance, measured on an insect set normally, is given. L: Its distribution. This is given with the greatest possible accuracy. A map of America allows the extent to be shown. B: Biology - Capture. It seemed interesting to give the maximum information about the life history and capture. P: Explanation of the plate. Supplementary information is given for the specimens whic h are illustrated. GENUS DYNASTES Kirby The genus Dynastes was established by KIRBY in 1825. Six species are currently known : - hercules - neptunus - satanas - tityus - granti - hyllus They are all shown here and three new sub-species are described. Size is measured from the extremity of the thoracic horn to the apex of the elytra. Dynastes hercules Linnaeus D: The largest of the Dynastidae. Its colour varies from yellow ochre to brownish black. The elytra are more or less sprinkled with black dots. B: As with most Dynastinae, Dynastes hercules is attracted to light. Its phytophagous larva lives on rotting wood.The larval stage lasts from one to two years. Rearing in captivity has been achieved, notably by J. RIGOUT. As this is one of the best known of the exotic beetles, there are some very fanciful stories associated with it Perhaps the most famous is that which says that hercules would seize branches of trees within its pincers - which are formed by the thoracic and cephalic horns - and cut through them by flying in a circle around them. This is where its local West Indian name « Wood Sawer » or « Long Sawer » comes from. In contrast, to return to more serious matters, JARMAN and HINTON have studied the strength and resistance of the pincers of this insect They have been able to establish that a male weighing 30 g can raise a weight of almost 2 kg with its cephalic horn ! M: 50 to 170 mm L: Central America, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Lesser Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago. Several sub-species which occupy distinct geographical areas can be morphologically distinguished. The differences between these sub-species rest on - the form of the apex of the cephalic horn and its preapical denticle - the number of denticles on the cephalic horn. This number can, however, vary within a single population - the position of the lateral denticles on the thoracic horn and their relative position with regard to the median distal denticle of the cephalic horn. The colouring of the elytra, which is very variable, is never a usable distinguishing criterion. Plate C shows in succession the last stage larva of Dynastes hercules, its pupa and the pupa in its cocoon (scale : I ). This material comes from a rearing achieved by J. RlGOUT in a flat in the Paris suburbs between 1973 and 1976. D. hercules hercules Linnaeus A: Linnaeus. 178, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, I, p. 345 S: alcides Fabricius, 1781, Spec. Ins., 1, p. 4 argentatus Verril, 1907, Am. J. Sci., (4) 24, p. 305 iphiclus Panzer. 1782. Symb. Ent., 1, p. 85, pl. 8, fig. 1 lagaii Verril, 1906, Am. J. Sci., (4) 21, p. 318, fig. 1 niger Endrodi, 1947, Folia ent. hung., n.s. 2, p. 58 oculatus Scopoli, 1772, Ann. Hist_ Nat., 5, p. 81 perseus Olivier, 1789, Entomologie, 1, 3, p. 8, pl. 1, fig. 3 scaber Linnaeus, 1764, Mus. Lud. Ulr., p. 17 vulcan Verril, 1906, Am. J. Sci., (4) 21, p. 319, fig. 2b D: Cephalic horn : 2 to 4 denticles, exceptionaly 5 ; preapical swelling sharp. Apex regularly concave, not hooked. Thoracic horn : lateral teeth most often placed before the median distal denticle. R Common M: 50 to 170 mm L: Lesser Antilles : Guadeloupe, Dominica. P: - Plate No. 1 shows a male with its elytra spread and its wings deployed. When Dynastes hercules flies, its elytra are less spread and more raised forming a V above the body. The wing surface is relatively small ; during flight the insect does not assume a horizontal position : the cephalic horn is raised and the abdomen lowered ; the whole body is at an angle of about 60° in relation to the horizontal. Speed is about one metre per second. - Plate No. 2 shows four specimens from Guadeloupe illustrating, on the one hand, the variablity of the elytral design and, on the other, the vast differences in the development. It is noticeable that a relatively small variation in the length of the elytra is accompanied by a very large one in the length of the cephalic and thoracic horns. This phenomenon, which is very widespread in the Dynastidae, is called ALLOMETRY. - Plate No. 3 shows two specimens : one (figure 1) has a slender thoracic horn. This specimen is called stenoceras ; the other (figure 2) has a very thick thoracic horn. This is called pachyceras. - - Plate No. 4, figures l and 2 : two specimens in profile, one showing a cephalic horn armed with numerous denticles ; figure 3 : the female of Dynastes hercules in which the elytral colouring can be more olive in some specimens. D. hercules baudrii Pinchon A: Pinchon, 1976, Le Dynaste hercule dans les Petites Antilles, p. 14, pl. IV, ph. 1 S: alcides Olivier (nec Fabricius), 1789, Entomologie, 1, 3, p. 7, pl. I , f7g. 2 reidi Chalumeau, 1977, Bull. mens. Soc. Jinn. Lyon, 46 (7), p. 237, fig. 3, 7 & 8 D: The cephalic horn has no denticle (or, exceptionally, a single one) and shows a sharp preapical swelling and a regularly concave, not hooked, apex. 'Ilzis small sub-species is characterised principally by the cephalic and thoracic horns which are approximately the same length. N.B. : under the name of alcides Fabricius, OLIVIER described and illustrated (number 3, Scarabs, plate I, figure 2) a specimen of baudrii. However, FABRICIUS type specimen, kept in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), is really a small male of Dynastes hercules hercules ; therefore, Scarabeus alcides Fabricius is a synonym of Dynastes hercules hercules Linnaeus. M: 50 to 100 mm L: Martinique and Saint Lucia P: Plate No. 4, figure 4 : a large male. D. hercules septentrionalis n. ssp. D: Holotype : 1 male, length 130 mm, from Guatemala : Quixal, Alta Verapaz, captured in January, 1979, in Museum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris. Cephalic horn : a single denticle ; slender preapical swelling ; apex regularly concave, not hooked.