''Serrognathus titanus'' is a species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

in the family

Lucanidae Stag beetles comprise the family Lucanidae. It has about 1,200 species of beetles in four subfamilies.Smith, A.B.T. (2006). A review of the family-group names for the superfamily Scarabaeoidea (Coleoptera) with corrections to nomenclature and a c ...

. 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 ento ...

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 jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

; 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 ...

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 hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

'' 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 forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

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 terrestrial biome, covering 25% of the world's forest area, only behind the boreal forest, which covers about 3 ...

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 is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

, 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 animal, wild species rather than as a Domesticated animal, domesticated pet. The definition varies by culture, location, and over time—as an ...

. 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 List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

(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 is the archipelago between Mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, and is also called Insulindia or the Indo-Australian Archipelago. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race, later based ...

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, administered by Japan, in the Philippine Sea southeast of Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa. The islands have a total area of and a population of 2,107. Administratively, the whole gr ...

) *''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 ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

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

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

*''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 northwest coast of the island is a ...

) *''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 an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

) *''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 list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

) * 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