Stag beetle

The stag beetle is the biggest beetle in Europe, and it is a real showstopper. It is mostly shiny black with reddish-brown wing cases, and the males have a pair of enormous jaws that curve up like the antlers of a stag deer. That is exactly how the beetle got its name.

Those big jaws may look fierce, but they are actually quite weak, and a male cannot give you a nip with them. The males use their “antlers” to gently wrestle other males, trying to lift a rival off a branch. Female stag beetles are a bit smaller and do not have the giant jaws.

A stag beetle spends most of its life as a fat, cream-coloured grub, curled up like the letter C. These grubs live underground and eat old, rotting wood from tree stumps and logs. They munch away slowly for several years before they are ready to change into beetles.

Grown-up stag beetles come out in warm summer weather, mostly at dusk. The males fly with a slow, buzzing hum to look for a mate, and the adults sip sweet tree sap and juice from fallen fruit. After all those years underground, the beetle’s grown-up life lasts only a few short weeks.

Stag beetles are becoming harder to find, so experts call them “near threatened.” They need plenty of dead and rotting wood to grow up in, and tidy gardens and parks often do not have enough. People can help by leaving old logs and stumps in a quiet corner, or by building little log piles for the grubs to feed on.