Dynastes granti Rhino Beetle Larva

Description

This listing is for one Dynastes grantii rhino beetle larva.

Update 11/16/24: females have passed away but laid plenty of eggs. We will be digging them up soon and they take as little as a month to hatch. They’ll need a couple weeks after that to put on some size and be stable for shipping. We expect availability in the new year, if not sooner. Please get on the waiting list if you’d like to be notified when they are ready!

This is the longest, most impressive rhino beetle species in the United States. A larva is an immature (like the caterpillars that later become adult butterflies). Available as L2 larvae (meaning 2nd instar, with L3 being the third and final, longest larval instar/stage). Larval sizes vary slightly. After a larva grows completely it pupates. A month or so later the adult beetle emerges. Photos of the larvae do not appear on this page currently.

These are available as captive bred larvae, unsexed at $19.99 each.

The larvae feed on decaying wood from hardwood trees like oak, beech, alder, maple, ash, etc. They will ship in a small amount of substrate that could sustain them for a month but not allow them to “thrive”. You really should have a plan for acquiring the suitable wood before getting them. I do offer a premium oak flake soil product in the links below.

A whole book written on their care is also offered below. To sum it up in three words–wood and moisture.

Adults later feed on juicy fruits like apple, peach and pear but we usually offer them beetle jellies, also linked below.

The video below compares two nice sized males of the yellower D. tityus with the grayish male Dynastes granti in the first clip and then moves on to a breeding pair of D. tityus.

A note about the spelling of this species. It was originally described as Dynates grantii, with the presence of two i’s at the end reflecting a misspelling/typo. Because it was officially documented as such, the misspelling stands and so even though Grant’s Rhinocoerus Beetle should be named Dynastes granti, it is D. grantii. I maintain the title of this page to reflect this historical and interesting detail and for the fact that the species was known to me as Dynastes granti for most of my own history of being familiar with them before it came to light in recent years that the original misspelling would in fact be honored as the official and permanent spelling.