Hercules beetle in Florida

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Jshuey
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Hercules beetle in Florida

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58chevy
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Re: Hercules beetle in Florida

Post by 58chevy »

Amazing!
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kevinkk
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Re: Hercules beetle in Florida

Post by kevinkk »

Interesting. I suppose a few generations might make it in Florida, until the cold weather that pops up now and then, killed them off,
but who knows for sure?
The beetle was dead, now, if it had been alive, that would have really been something.
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Re: Hercules beetle in Florida

Post by livingplanet3 »

That beetle was most certainly raised in captivity - I have no doubt about that. Something about this story seems a bit peculiar though, and I suspect that it could well be a deliberate hoax. Another possibility is that whoever had the beetle as a pet disposed of it in the trash after it died, and it was later retrieved by some scavenging animal such as a raccoon or opossum, which then dropped it by the road.
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Re: Hercules beetle in Florida

Post by Trehopr1 »

I have to agree wholeheartedly with you livingplanet3 !

Certainly, your idea of someone having (raised it) and then having it die; then tossing it in the trash to have some animal scavage it is the most credible reasoning for this occurrence.

South Florida already has an active population of Red rump tarantulas living along the waterways and/or canals of several areas down there.

Apparently, there is something about the soft earth along the waterways which allows the spiders to dig burrows for safety. Otherwise the soil is too sandy for them to do the same elsewhere in Florida and they are well below the frost line of Central Florida.
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Re: Hercules beetle in Florida

Post by Trehopr1 »

One must always look at farfetched stories like this with skepticism (first).

There has to be a sound reason for something completely "unnatural" to appear.

One could say that when strange unoccurring species appeared anywhere along our Gulf Coast during the 50s 60s and 70s they could be explained away as hitchhikers brought in from some ship or packing crate.

However, since the decade of the 80s (and on) many things have been purchased, bred, and accidentally escaped from many would be hobbyists with a particular fancy for something.
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kevinkk
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Re: Hercules beetle in Florida

Post by kevinkk »

Aren't Hercules beetles going for 2 or 3 hundred bucks dead? I can't believe they cost so much now, I had 1 in my collection when I was a kid,
they were only about 25 dollars, now, I'll never hold another one. For someone to raise this beetle, then just toss it is weird, and may
be some kind of hoax.
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livingplanet3
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Re: Hercules beetle in Florida

Post by livingplanet3 »

kevinkk wrote: Sat Jun 25, 2022 12:39 am Aren't Hercules beetles going for 2 or 3 hundred bucks dead? I can't believe they cost so much now, I had 1 in my collection when I was a kid,
they were only about 25 dollars, now, I'll never hold another one. For someone to raise this beetle, then just toss it is weird, and may
be some kind of hoax.
It somewhat depends on who you are buying from, but true, very large D. hercules specimens in fine condition do typically command considerable prices these days, and once they get above the 150mm range, the price goes up considerably by the mm, since examples above that range are rather exceptional, even in captive rearing. When you start getting into the 160mm range, the prices become very much higher, and close to 170mm is when pricing can become quite outrageous.

The beetle in the news story was of reasonably good size, but in quite poor condition - missing all of its tarsi; that makes it largely worthless as a specimen to the majority of the collector market.

I also noticed that it has a puncture in its thoracic horn. That could have been done by another male during a fight, or, perhaps it's a tooth mark from an animal that, theoretically, pulled the beetle out of someone's trash. Then again, I have to wonder if the finder might in fact be the one who actually had the beetle when it was alive. Maybe he didn't "find" it at all! :roll:
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Re: Hercules beetle in Florida

Post by lamprima2 »

A prised big "blue" D.h? Looks like a hoax.
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