Repeated question on the range of the Hercules beetle

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Анатолий Константинович Мусоров, 11.05.2012 10:26

I asked this question a couple of months ago, but I didn't get an answer because I couldn't post a photo of the larva itself at that time, which caused me a lot of doubts. I will repeat it all again: At the beginning of November 2011, I found a large larva of a beetle on the Icacos peninsula (Varadero) in Cuba. Just in case, I took a picture, but without a scale ruler, I just couldn't imagine at that time that it could ever come in handy. Later, when I saw a photo of the larvae of the Hercules beetle, I was very surprised by the large, almost complete (for a non-specialist) similarity. But according to encyclopedic data, the range of the Hercules beetle does not reach Cuba and covers only the Lesser Antilles. Since I can't post a photo as a guest of this forum, I give the link http://foto.mail.ru/mail/anatolii.musorov/752/880.html#

Comments

11.05.2012 17:22, Анатолий Константинович Мусоров

In many lamellidae, the larvae are similar in appearance. If you hadn't written about Cuba, I'd have thought it was a May bug larva. It seems to me that in the Caribbean, even without hercules, there are enough large lamellar whiskers. However, I do not know the tropics.
In any case, a single photo of a larva is not enough to find the truth.
Well, my advice - see modern monographs on dynasties.

Cgfcb, j Thank you so much! I am glad to receive any and all answers to my non-standard question! I myself, when I saw this larva, remembered exactly about the May Beetle, but the larva was three or four times larger. Next to the larva among the half-rotted leaves,, a stone,, some tropical fruit, experts, I think, will understand what exactly so its size is not less than four centimeters. Of course, there are dynasties in Cuba, but I can't find anything on this topic. Perhaps share specific links. The last time I brought up this topic, one of the answers was that someone who had seen large beetles crushed on Varadero and in Havana suggested that it was Dinastes tityus. But there were also many objections about this.

16.05.2012 22:16, Анатолий Константинович Мусоров

As you know, the larvae of crunchier lamellids are very similar to each other, especially if you can't see the epicranium from the frontal part and the posterior anal sternite. As for the larvae of Cuban rhinoceros species, they are not really found in the determinants. Your larva is some kind of local plate and I don't think you should focus on Hercules...

I don't really get hung up. Simply, I repeat once again : not being an expert, when I saw a photo of the larvae of the Hercules beetle, I immediately remembered that I had seen exactly the same one in Cuba. And to clarify my assumptions, I turned for the first time with a similar question to specialists through this forum. But since the first time, the photo was unavailable to users, all the experts unanimously declared -,, Here will be a photo then and let's say OUR WEIGHTY...,,. I actually hoped for this, after I was able to post the photo. But it turns out that Cuba tried in vain - a solid white spot for Russian entomologists.

17.05.2012 15:47, Анатолий Константинович Мусоров

Well, let's not generalize like that... You just saw a standard plate larva and not extreme sizes and for some reason associated it with Hercules. In the same makar, we can say that this is Goliath and let's go further on the basis of this, that is, we will rewrite the zoogeography...

I don't want to rewrite zoogeography, and I don't even want to describe a new species and give it my own name. Although in Cuba, apparently, both are possible. On Goliath, I would not have thought (although not an expert), it is clear that the wrong field berry. Yes, and actually the photo of the Goliath larva for me (not an expert) for some reason did not cause an association with what I saw in Cuba, but for some reason I immediately assumed Hercules. The African flora and fauna doesn't really appeal to me, although at the dacha I dug up some conifers personally brought from Tunisia.