According to Aya Yatsumoto, of the Environmental Cooperation Office in the Ministry of Environment, they’re exempt because they’re not considered threats to wild Japanese beetles. Satanas and Hercules beetles, however, aren’t among them. Japan’s Invasive Alien Species Act-which aims to prevent adverse effects from introduced animals and plants on ecosystems, human security, agriculture, forestry, and fishing-prohibits the import of 148 species of animals and plants. Bolivia’s Environment Ministry classifies the satanas beetle as endangered, and under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which regulates cross-border trade in animals and plants, importing and exporting them, is strictly regulated. In Bolivia, capturing, collecting, or storing wild animals has been prohibited since 1990, and laws allow for prison time of up to six years for people who get caught. I sold them to Mexican who worked with the Japanese.” “In a season, about 70 beetles can be captured per person. “On a good morning, we can catch up to five,” he says. Zambrana lovingly places the three beetles in a Tupperware container with air holes in the lid and a slice of banana for them to snack on. (Prices vary according to the size, shape, and length of the horn.) On display in pet shops in Japan, the showiest satanas beetles may have a price tag of $500. With their impressive horns, they’re coveted by bug lovers, especially in Japan.Įvery January to May, satanas hunters in the mountainous municipality of Coroico hope to earn up to $30 for each live beetle they snag. Along with the Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules), they’re members of the subfamily of rhinoceros beetles. In the end, this hunt yields three Dynastes satanas, big shiny black scarab beetles endemic to Bolivia and known locally as lightbulb breakers. An hour passes before the silence is broken by the whirr of wingbeats-beetles careening toward the glow in the forest-and, Zambrana hopes, entrapment in his cloth. In the clearing, he sets up a small generator to power a 250-watt lightbulb placed behind a white cloth suspended between two sticks. on a February morning in 2019, Zambrana is slashing at vegetation with a machete on a forested mountainside about 60 miles northeast of Bolivia’s capital, La Paz. One must run to grab them before they bury themselves.”Īt 3 a.m. “First comes the female, and then the male. It is also best to keep the male and female separate until you are ready to breed them.COROICO, BOLIVIA“We need dark nights-they don’t come when the moon is out,” Reynaldo Zambrana explains. Keep the humidity in the containers up by putting in some water on a regular basis. Since they are such large beetles, you need to make sure that you have some large containers to put them in. The optimum temperature for Hercules beetles is between 22 and 25 degrees Celsius. I have noticed that the male tends to stay in his ceramic dish on very hot days, perhaps as a way of staying cool. Hercules beetles should be able to live for one year. It is best to use beetle jelly that is high in protein, as this will lengthen the life of the beetle. Put in a shallow ceramic dish and squeeze the beetle jelly into it so that the male can easily access the jelly even with his long horn. Place one or two large pieces of wood on top of the matting for the beetles to grip on to. The female will often dig into the matting, but you will probably find that the male will spend most of his time on top. This matting should be kept moist and deep enough for the beetles to hide in. You should use a matting that is a coniferous blend, as this minimizes the problems you may have with mites during the summer months. Hercules beetles are very easy to look after. As a pair, this large size can be sold for up to 50,000 yen in some shops, so he did an amazing job raising them. The male is 152 mm long and the female is 70 mm. He bought them as larvae and spent two years looking after them before they became the adults you see above. The male and female pictured above were a present from my brother-in-law. However, if you care for them nicely, they can live up to 1 year old. These beetles spend one to two years as a larva and about 6 months as an adult. The females are brownish in color, with the edges near the back having a yellowish tinge to them. Since this beetle is so huge, it was named after Hercules from Greek mythology. On the bottom of its top horn, there are lots of little orange hairs. Their magnificent horn can make up over half their total length. The males have yellowish elytra with black dots on them. For example, Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil. They can be found in Central America and South America. The Hercules is the world's largest rhinoceros beetle.
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