Here is a male three-horned rhinoceros beetle climbing a leaf

Today I want to write about a really cool looking beetle, the three-horned rhinoceros beetle.

Here are five interesting facts about them:

1. These large beetles grow to about 11 cm long.
2. Only the males have the horns that give them their name.  They have two horns on their thorax that point forward and one from their head that points up.
3. The males are very aggressive and use their horns to fight, trying to knock each other off their branch or onto their backs.
4. It takes about 18 months for a baby to become an adult.  They go through three larval stages before making a cocoon from dead wood and dirt.  They stay in these cocoons for two months before emerging as an adult.
5. Three-horned rhinoceros beetles aren’t as common as many other species of beetle and can only be found in forests and plantations on the island of Borneo.

I hope that you found these facts interesting and learned something new.

Are there any other interesting facts that you would like to share about three-horned rhinoceros beetles?