Megasoma

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Ordo: Coleoptera
Subordo: Polyphaga
Infraordo: Scarabaeiformia
Superfamilia: Scarabaeoidea

Familia: Scarabaeidae
Subfamilia: Dynastinae
Tribus: Dynastini
Genus: Megasoma
Species (18): M. actaeon – M. anubis – M. cedrosa – M. elephas – M. gyas – M. hermes – M. hyperion – M. joergenseni – M. lecontei – M. mars – M. nogueirai – M. occidentale – M. pachecoi – M. punctulatum – M. sleeperi – M. svobodaorum – M. thersites – M. vogti

In synonymy (3): M. porioni – M. prandii – M. ramirezorum – M. rumbucheri
Name

Megasoma Kirby, 1825: 566 (gender: Neuter, following ICZN Article 30.1.2)

Type species: Scarabaeus actaeon Linnaeus, 1758, by original designation.

Synonyms

Megalosoma Burmeister, 1847
Lycophontes Bruch, 1910
Megasominus Casey, 1915

References
Primary references

Kirby, W. 1825. A description of such genera and species of insects, as alluded to in the "Introduction to Entomology" of Messrs. Kirby and Spence, as appear not to have been before sufficiently noticed or described. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 14: 563–572. Internet Archive [original description: p. 566]
Prandi, M., Grossi, P.C. & Vaz-de-Mello, F.Z. 2020. Revision of the Megasoma (Megasoma) gyas (Jablonsky in Herbst, 1785) species group (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae). ZooKeys, 999: 109–145. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.999.53130 Open access Reference page.

Links

Schoolmeesters P. 2017. Scarabs: World Scarabaeidae Database (version Jul 2016). In: Roskov Y., Abucay L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., De Wever A., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds. 2017. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 30th January 2017. Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/col. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-8858. Reference page. [accessed on Jun 14, 2017]

Megasoma is a genus of rhinoceros beetles. Commonly known as the elephant beetles, Megasoma species are found from the southern half of North America to most of South America.

Appearance

Megasoma are generally large in size (as indicated by the name, which is "large body" in Greek). As a group, the genus contains some of the largest beetle species known. However, there are small species of this genus as well. The largest can be up to 135 mm, while small ones like Megasoma punctulatum can be around 20 mm.

Many Megasoma species (Megasoma elephas, Megasoma thersites, Megasoma gyas, Megasoma cedrosa, Megasoma anubis, Megasoma occidentale, Megasoma joergenseni, Megasoma vogti) have thin microscopic hairs (setae) covering nearly their entire bodies, giving the appearance of being pale or orange.

Males of most species have large horns that they use to wrestle with other males. Females do not have horns.
Diet

Larvae feed on tree or shrub roots. Adults usually drink tree sap or suck juice from fruit.
Behavior and Habitat

Adult Megasoma are nocturnal and are attracted to lights, and are often seen resting in trees.
Species list[1]

Megasoma actaeon Linnaeus, 1758
Megasoma anubis Chevrolat, 1836
Megasoma cedrosa Hardy, 1972
Megasoma elephas Fabricius, 1775
Megasoma fujitai Nagai 2003
Megasoma gyas Herbst, 1785
Megasoma hermes Prandi, 2016
Megasoma janus Felsche, 2006
Megasoma joergenseni Bruch, 1910
Megasoma lecontei Hardy, 1972
Megasoma mars Reiche, 1852
Megasoma nogueirai Morón, 2005
Megasoma occidentale Bolivar, Pieltain, Jimenez-asua & Martinez, 1963
Megasoma pachecoi Cartwright, 1963
Megasoma punctulatum Cartwright, 1952
Megasoma ramirezorum Silvestre et Arnaud, 2002
Megasoma rex Prandi, 2018
Megasoma sleeperi Hardy, 1972
Megasoma svobodaorum Krajcik, 2009
Megasoma thersites LeConte, 1861
Megasoma vazdemelloi Prandi, 2018
Megasoma vogti Cartwright, 1963

See also

List of largest insects

References

2019 winter Bekuwa No.70

Kirby, W. 1825. A description of such genera and species of insects, as alluded to in the "Introduction to Entomology" of Messrs. Kirby and Spence, as appear not to have been before sufficiently noticed or described. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 14: 563–572. Internet Archive [original description: p. 566]
Schoolmeesters P. 2017. Scarabs: World Scarabaeidae Database (version Jul 2016). In: Roskov Y., Abucay L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., De Wever A., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds. 2017. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 30 January 2017. Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/col. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-8858. Reference page.
2019 winter Bekuwa No.70 Megasoma group