Siamese Rhinoceros Beetle (Orchid Island/Lanyu)

English Name: Siamese Rhinoceros Beetle (Philippine subspecies)
Scientific Name: Xylotrupes gideon philippinensis
Chinese Name: 姬獨角仙 (ji1 du2 jiao3 xian1), 菲律賓姬兜蟲 (fei1 lü4 bin1 ji1 dou1 chong2), 
Chinese Meaning: "Gideon's Single-Horned Fairy", "Philippine Gideon's Dou Bug"

Male rhinoceros beetle (Xylotrupes gideon philippinensis)

Date: August 8, 2010
Location: Road near Yeyin Village, Orchid Island (Lanyu), Lanyu Township, Taitung County
Coordinates: 22° 02' 25" N, 121° 33' 57" E

Orchid Island - also known by its Mandarin name, Lanyu - is an island located just southeast of Taiwan. Though controlled by the Taiwanese government, it is ecologically and culturally a transition area between Taiwan to the northwest and the Philippines to the south. The people here have their own culture and speak a unique non-Chinese language, and the island's ecosystems are home to a number of endemic species. Though not endemic itself, I was delighted to come across this beautiful insect on a night-time walk on Orchid Island last year.

Female rhinoceros beetle (Xylotrupes gideon philippinensis)

Date: August 8, 2010
Location: Road between Dongcing and Yeyin Villages, Orchid Island (Lanyu), Lanyu Township, Taitung County
Coordinates: 22° 02' 52" N, 121° 33' 43" E

This species, which ranges across much of Southeast Asia to Australia, is probably best known to Westerners as the Siamese "fighting beetle", for its role in staged insect fights in northern Thailand and surrounding countries. Apart from bringing in gambling revenue, it is also prized as a pet in many areas. This particular subspecies is limited in range to the Philippines and southeastern Taiwan, and is sometimes known to Taiwanese as the "Lanyu rhinoceros beetle" due to the fact that it is commonly found on Orchid Island, with only much smaller populations existing in other parts of Taiwan. The colloquial Chinese word for "rhinoceros beetle" literally translates as "Single-Horned Fairy" (獨角仙).

Top view: male rhinoceros beetle (Xylotrupes gideon philippinensis)

There are over 300 species of rhinoceros beetle worldwide, most of which share a similar life cycle: a year or more spent underground as a grub eating rotting wood, followed by a 2-4 month long adult life of mating and feeding on fruit and nectar. Despite its reputation as an aggressive fighter in the ring, the Siamese rhinoceros beetle is harmless to humans, and relies on its ability to produce a hissing noise to scare away large predators. Unfortunately, hissing won't protect it from the growing number of motor scooters in use on Orchid Island's roads, where it makes itself vulnerable by coming out to mate under the street lights from May to August.