Scarab3ee rhinoceros

Oryctes nasicornis is a Coléoptère of the family of the Scarabaeidae , subfamily of the Dynastinae .

Distribution

Oryctes nasicornis is the only one of the 3 paleartic species of the type Oryctes which lives in Western Europe, other than the British Isles. It is widespread in all the Mediterranean basin until the Pakistan.

Description

Oryctes nasicornis is of reddish color brown or chatain more or less dark, of glazed aspect.

Its length from 20 to 40 mm does of it one of the largest coleopters which meet in France.

At Oryctes nasicornis the sexual Dimorphisme is marked. The head of the male is surmounted by a long behind bent horn, from where its vernacular name of Rhinocéros ( rhino , nose; ceros , horn). The female is deprived of horn.

Development

The Larve is arched like that of the Hanneton (white worm). It develops in the vegetable matters in decomposition, nourishes wood (saproxylophage), woody remains generally not coniferous tree (except perhaps in the South-west of France). She lives between the ground and of wood in putrefaction, in the pourrissantes parts of old trees, in the compost, the heaps of compost and died sheets, the rebuses of the tanneries and the sawmills.

Arrival with maturity it reaches 60 mm, up to 100 mm according to certain authors. The duration of its development is from 2 to 3 or 4 years. The size of the adult can be influenced by the quality and the abundance of food. The Hyménoptère Scolia will flavifrons is a parasite of the larva.

The adult appears as of at the end of March, April or May, and saw several months until in autumn. One especially meets it during July and June. It is not very active, flies in the twilight and the night, attracted by the lights. Testing many difficulties of being restored when it falls to ground on the back, it can be watched for under the lampadères by the Fourmis. It has for Prédateur S the night Rapace S.

Distribution and variation

In France 4 subspecies could be distinguished:

Oryctes nasicornis nasicornis (Linnaeus, 1746) would occupy the Western part and septentrional of the Europe: the Holland, the Belgium, the Luxembourg, France of North to the basin of the the Seine, and the Germany.

Oryctes nasicornis laevigatus (Heer, 1841) would colonize the Center and the South of France, reaching the the Pyrenees, the South of the Suisse, the biggest part of the Italy (and according to some the Corsica and the Sardinia).

Oryctes nasicornis grypus (Illiger, 1803), being characterized by its bigger size and the disappearance of the punctuation of the élytres, would meet in Gascogne, in the Languedoc and Roussillon, the Iberian peninsula, the Calabria, the Sicily (and according to others the Corsica and the Sardinia) like in the countries of the the Maghreb (with the Morocco and in Algérie, from the coastal area until more than 1000 meters of altitude in the interior).

Oryctes nasicornis mariei (Bourgin, 1949) would be limited to the littoral of the Landes, in the South-west of France.

Resembling species

Phyllognatus silenus , of the same color but smaller. The male presents a small cephalic horn. Often considered to be harmful with the vineyards, one meets it May at September in the South of France but it goes up until the Charente-Maritime.

Copris lunaris , black and moreover small size. The male presents to him also a rather long horn, the female a short vertical blade at indented top. It is rather common in all France to spring and in summer.

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