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Elephant beetle

Megasoma elephas

Description:

Over 100mm usually some males can exceed 120mm but it is rather rare. Orange brown fuzzy elytra with a large horn on male's head. Usually found at night or near sugar cane and banana plantations. Mostly occurs in the rainy season.

Habitat:

Costa Rica neotropical cloud forests. High elevation.

Notes:

I found this Elephant beetle when I cut open my toe on a stone ledge when I was searching for insects at night. I went to go wash off my foot in the pool nearest to us when I hear my dad step on something hard on our way to the pool steps. When I look down I couldn't believe my eyes. It was an Elephant beetle just walking around not even phased from getting accidentally stepped on. Once we noticed him we took him back to the hotel to show the family. When we were there, we fed him Papaya, Pineapple, and some Banana.

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1 Comment

Welcome to Project Noah, Sphingid_Matt
Great first spotting,congrats and thanks for sharing
We hope you like the site as much we do; there are many features you can explore:
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Sphingid_Matt
Spotted by
Sphingid_Matt

Provincia de Alajuela, Costa Rica

Spotted on Jul 1, 2013
Submitted on Jun 2, 2014

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