Grant's Rhinoceros Beetle (Dynastes granti)

    The largest Rhino beetle in the United States, Dynastes granti is found in various parts of Arizona, USA.  With the long upper horn, males, being longer than females, range from about 50mm to 80mm.  Specimens outside that range are rare, but not unheard of.  This particular MONSTER is an amazing 76.2 mm (without legs) wild-caught male (Payson, AZ in August, 2000)!  Captive-bred specimens can be longer on average, but still rarely reach 75 mm.  The larvae feed on leaf-litter and rotten wood, while adults apparently feed on the sap of trees, especially Velvet Ash (Arizona Ash).

Raising Larvae:

You are best off just going down to the local nursery and buying a big bag of organic soil, without pumice in it. Pumice makes it harder to distinguish the ova, and may also damage them during the filtering process, when you are looking for ova. If I was you, I'd put about 8 inches of soil in a 10 gallon aquarium, and just throw the females in there. Males may kill females, so they should only be allowed to stay with the females until you are sure they have been mated. The females will burrow to the bottom, lay ova, then come back to the top to feed on apple or banana, which should be placed on a plastic lid so that the juices don't contaminate the soil any more than they have to. Room temperature is fine, although my females have tended to live a bit longer since I keep them in a cooler basement. This doesn't necessarily mean they lay more ova, though. I use a watering can to wet the soil down pretty good, once a week or so. I might dump like a quart of water evenly throughout the substrate, but in warmer/dryer conditions, you might need to increase this amount.  Ova should hatch after a few months, but mine usually take 9-12 months since I keep them so cool.  Actually, they never really hatch unless I take them (in substrate) outside in the summer heat, or warm them up for a few days under a heat-lamp (this can be very dangerous if not monitored very closely).  Larvae feed voraciously on hardwood wood and leaf substrate mixes, but should also be given dry petfood for protein.  They may eat the latter exclusively, as they mature.  D. granti take about 2 years to mature.