Japanese Great Stag Beetle (Dorcus hopei binodulosus)

IMPORTANT: Live beetles cannot be released into non-native habitats under any circumstances.  Please contact me to re-home any unwanted non-native beetles.

Japanese Great Stag Beetles, Hope's Stag Beetle, or Giant Japanese Stag Beetles, otherwise known as Dorcus hopei binodulosus, can be found in Japan and Korea.  However, our adult beetles and larvae are all captive bred in the United States.  In Japan they are prized as pets and are known as Ookuwagata.

The DHB, as we like to call them, are one of my favorite beetles!  For good reason too.  They are very long lived for insects, with lifespans up to 5 years!  A few years is a reasonable expectation however.  To achieve this DHB will often hibernate during the winter months.  Starting around late fall you will often find them hiding under logs or buried in the substrate and barely moving or eating.  This lasts until the spring when they emerge from their hiding places and actively start looking for food and mates.  

DHB are sizable stags growing into the 80+mm range.  Although they are large and have formidable mandibles, they are also gentle giants.  DHB are exceptionally well behaved and rarely, if ever, pinch or act aggressively.  This is one of the reasons why it's one of my favorites!  They are long lived, well mannered, and exceptionally handsome with their exquisite proportions and sleek mandibles.  During the late 1990s an exceptionally large DHB sold for a record ¥10,035,000 ($90,000 USD) in Tokyo!

Our beetles can be purchased as L1/2 larvae, L2/3 larvae, or as adults.  Please make sure you select the proper life stage in the checkout options.  Larvae will be shipped in a small amount of substrate that is suitable to sustain them for up to a week.  Please make sure you have the proper amount of substrate to transfer the larvae to upon arrival.  Great Stag Beetle larvae can be kept in stag flake soil or kinshi (oyster or turkeytail mushroom mycelium colonized substrate).  Kinshi will typically produce larger beetles but it is not necessary to raise them in this substrate.

Suggested substrate container sizes for Japanese Great Stag Beetles are:

• L1: 4 oz. container
• L2: 16 oz. container
• L3 females: 32 oz. container
• L3 males: 48-64 oz. container

Adult Japanese Stags can eat soft fruits such as banana, melons, peaches, etc.  Buying organic produce is a better option to avoid pesticides that can be found in fruit.  Also stay away from citrus fruits (too acidic) and watermelon as it's water content is too high to use as a regular food source.  The best choice though is probably beetle jelly since it is designed to provide beetles with the proper nutrients and with additional protein (helpful for breeding).