Beetles Do Battle on Wedding Day

In Dominica my beetles came to me at night in most cases. When the sun had gone to rest, and the strange sounds of Dominican nightlife echoed loudly through the surrounding forests, our oil lamps brought many a weird creature to our tables. Occasionally there would be a deep booming like the sound of a far distant aeroplane, and then from somewhere out of the night would come a great Hercules beetle landing with a roar and commotion upon the window ledge or door sill. Settling its wings at once beneath the iron-like elytra, it would peer about for a moment and then, like all insects, it would start directly towards the nearest lamp.

It was quickly observed that the great "claws" of the males serve a single purpose, or possibly two. The main purpose is undoubtedly for offense and defense, as a great deal of fighting goes on, not only over the females, but also over desirable feeding areas. Two of my males fought desperate battles at times, remaining locked in a most impressive grip for an hour at a time. One of them finally succeeded in puncturing two large holes through the other's armor where the teeth that line the "claws" were pressed towards each other. This implies a considerable amount of strength and injuring ability, as one will readily see upon examining the extremely hard surfaces of the insects' outer wings.

These fights went on until one male was finally worn out. One of his legs was broken off and he was badly punctured and finally died. Occasionally the entire head, and thorax bearing the "claws" is torn off by an antagonist. This is not remarkable as the whole thing is rather loosely joined to the rest of the body. The beetles, which I found in January, February and March, were not of very great size. Later in the season they appeared in greater numbers and at this time they were larger. At such times, they occasionally collected in swarms about a certain central lure, which in one case was a palm tree, known by the natives as a Sago palm. The insects began to arrive in the late spring and each day saw more and more of them collecting at this spot. The lure was undoubtedly the mating urge, but the remarkable fact was that an actual army of the insects gathered to take part in a general wedding of the race.

Not all was joy for those who came here, alas! The battles that raged were long and fierce and the grass about the palm tree was strewn with heads and claws and broken limbs. Those who won out undoubtedly took their pick of the lady beetles, and possibly lived happily, if not forever, afterwards. Just what went on in the upper part of that tree would be hard to say definitely, but I suspect that the eggs of the insects are deposited there.