Titan Stag Beetle

The titan stag beetle, Dorcus titanus, is a flat-bodied stag beetle found across Asia. Current checklists file it as Serrognathus titanus, and it is a complex of more than 20 named subspecies, from India and Thailand through China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan to Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Size depends on the form: Japanese mainland males measure about 28 to 73 mm and females 20 to 44 mm, while island forms such as the Palawan beetle grow much larger. Larvae feed in rotting hardwood for about a year, and adults can live one to three years. It is not the titan beetle, Titanus giganteus, a South American longhorn.

In the United States, importing a live titan stag beetle or moving one between states requires a USDA PPQ 526 permit, which the receiver applies for, and in 2019 APHIS declined to exempt foreign stag beetles. Keep each form labeled and never release one: in Japan, Palawan and Sumatran beetles have crossed with the native subspecies and produced fertile hybrids. Keepers raise larvae in decaying oak or beech flake soil at about 20 to 26 degrees C and keep a mated female apart from the male, since males can injure females.