Читать книгу Extreme Insects - Richard Jones - Страница 8

NAME	Titanus giganteus
LOCATION	Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the Guianas, Brazil
ATTRIBUTE	largest living insect

In 1771, the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus described a giant beetle, and named it using his new scheme of binomial (two names) nomenclature: one name for the genus (Titanus) and one name for the species (giganteus). This name could not have been more apt for an insect that regularly reaches 17 cm (6.7 in) long. Linnaeus never saw the beetle itself. He coined the name after seeing an engraving of it in an encyclopedia.

The reason Linnaeus never saw one is that this was one of the rarest insects then known. During the 18th century, specimens were occasionally washed up dead on the shores of the Rio Negro, near Manaos in Brazil. The first living beetles were not found until 1958, when they were attracted to the street lights which were newly installed in the towns and villages in the area. Its early stages and life history are still unknown, but similar species have maggot-like larvae that feed in rotten logs.

There is still some doubt as to whether Titanus giganteus truly is the ‘largest’ insect. Few reliable measurements of living specimens have been taken. There is also little data regarding its weight – usually regarded as the key indicator of size by record-measuring organisations. As a result, four other beetles are contenders for the title. These are the shorter but stouter ‘Elephant’ beetles from South America – Megasoma actaeon (13.5 cm) and M. elephas (13.7 cm) – and the Goliath beetles from Africa – Goliathus regius (11 cm) and G. goliathus (11 cm).