Stag Beetle

• Males use their antler-like jaws to fight over access to females, much as deer use their antlers.
• The grub feeds on rotting deadwood for three to seven years.
• The adult cannot chew and laps up sap and fermenting fruit with its tongue.
• comportamientoMales grow greatly enlarged jaws resembling a stag's antlers, used in ritual combat with other males over access to females.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton

Habitat & environment

Deciduous woodland of oak, beech and other trees with dead or rotting timber, across much of Europe

Birth weight

Tiny on hatching from the egg, whitish with six orange legs

Size at birth

A whitish newly hatched larva with an orange head and legs

Sexual maturity

The adult emerges already mature after metamorphosis in its underground cocoon

Gestation / incubation

Egg: ~3 weeks | Larval stage: 3 to 7 years (a documented minimum of 3 years under controlled field conditions)

Litter / clutch size

~30 eggs per clutch

Sources consulted: iNaturalist; Better Planet Education; Maria Fremlin (life cycle research); ResearchGate (life cycle study); Entomologist.net; European Stag Beetle Monitoring Network; BeetlesBug