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Rhinoceros beetle, common rhinoceros beetle or rhinoceros beetle (Latin Oryctes nasicornis) is a species of coleoptera, belonging to the lamellar family. A large chestnut-brown or red-brown beetle with a massive body 25-47 mm long. Legs are thick, strong, front - digging, back - with supporting teeth and spines. The species is characterized by pronounced sexual dimorphism. Males have a backward-curved horn on the head, and a three-toothed transverse elevation on the pronotum. Females have a small horn on their head, which resembles a small tubercle in its shape. Also, in females, the projection on the pronotum is poorly developed. Beetles are active mainly on warm summer evenings, and often arrive at artificial light sources. The larva is C-shaped, curved, thick, yellow-white, up to 8-11 cm long. It develops in rotten wood of dead deciduous trees, heaps of plant humus, compost, rotted manure, caked leaves and sawdust for 2-4 years. The species is distributed in Europe (with the exception of the northern regions and the British Isles), North Africa, Central and Asia Minor, the Caucasus and southern Western Siberia Protected in some countries of Western Europe, it is also included in a number of regional Red Data Books of the Russian Federation. The species is widespread: Europe (except for the northern regions and the British Isles), the Caucasus, the Ciscaucasia, the south of Western Siberia (the vicinity of Omsk, Tobolsk, Biysk, Semey), North Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia), Central Asia, Northeastern Turkey , Asia Minor, including Iran (south and east to Tabriz, Kayamaria, Shahrud and Mashhad in Khorasan province) and Syria. The northern border of the area runs from the Baltic Sea to St. Petersburg, Novgorod region of Russia, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kirov region, Bashkiria; beyond the Urals through Yekaterinburg and Kostanay. Further to the east, the species is known only from separate, often far from each other points. The southern border of the area in its Asian part runs from the mouth of the Urals to the upper reaches of the Emba basin, then to the northern coast of the Aral Sea, along the steppes of Northern Kazakhstan (Naurzum bor and Turgai). In the southeast, the range reaches the southwestern regions of China (Xinjiang) and India (Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and Uttarakhand). The original natural habitats of the rhinoceros beetle are broad-leaved forests of various types, including mountain, watershed, ravine, supra-meadow terrace forests and river floodplain forests. Thanks to humans, the species was able to penetrate into artificial plantations of the steppe zone, as well as into treeless areas of the steppe and semi-desert zone, where the rhinoceros beetle originally inhabited the supra-meadow forests and forests of floodplain river terraces. In Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the species also widely penetrated the steppes and semi-deserts. Here, the species adapted to existence in human settlements, becoming an optional synanthropus, and develops in greenhouses, rotted manure in barnyards, in garbage heaps of wood waste and accumulations of decaying wood residues. Together with humans, the rhinoceros beetle also spread to the north of Europe, as well as far into the taiga in the European part of Russia and in Western Siberia, where it is confined to greenhouses, greenhouses, heaps of compost and small wood waste. In the forest-steppe and steppe zones, in the Crimea and Ciscaucasia, it is often found, and in the north of the European part of the range and in Siberia it is rare. Depending on the area of the range, the flight time of beetles varies - from spring to mid-summer, sometimes to early autumn. In the steppe zone and in the Crimea, flight occurs from late May, early June to 2-3 ten days of July. In the forest-steppe zone and the European part of Russia, beetles are found from June to 2-3 ten days of July, with a peak in early July. In the European taiga zone, flight lasts from early July to late August. Imago live 1-2 months. Beetles are usually found near the sites of larval development. During the day, beetles are usually inactive, do not fly and hide on the ground, in the hollows of trees. The activity begins at dusk and with the onset of complete darkness, continuing almost all night. Beetles often fly to artificial light sources. The nutrition of the rhinoceros beetle has not been studied. The structure of their oral apparatus, in particular, poorly developed chewing surfaces and the absence of cutting teeth on the inner edge of the upper jaws, the absence of chitinized teeth on the lobes of the lower jaws, covered with thick long hairs forming brushes, suggests that if the beetles feed, then soft or liquid food (for example, flowing tree sap). It is most likely that the beetles do not feed at all and live off the reserves of nutrients accumulated during the larval stage. The larvae are xylophages and saprophages - they feed on decaying wood and
