Head to head
Hercules Beetle vs Goliath Beetle
The hercules beetle and the goliath beetle are both regularly called the largest beetle in the world, and both claims are defensible because they win on different measures. The hercules beetle is the longest, thanks to a gigantic horn. The goliath beetle is one of the heaviest, especially as a larva. They are not close relatives: the hercules is a rhinoceros beetle from the Americas, the goliath a giant flower chafer from Africa.
| Hercules Beetle | Goliath Beetle | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Rhinoceros beetle (Dynastinae) | Flower chafer (Cetoniinae) |
| Native to | Central and South America | Tropical Africa |
| Record length | Up to about 17 cm, the longest beetle | Up to about 11 cm |
| Adult weight | Around 16 to 34 g | Up to about 50 g |
| Larva weight | Up to about 100 g plus | Up to about 100 g plus, sometimes the heaviest |
| The horn | A huge pincer-like thoracic horn on males | A small Y-shaped head horn on males |
| Adult diet | Rotting fruit, tree sap | Tree sap, fruit, and nectar |
| In fights | Levers and throws rivals off branches | Pushes and grapples with the small horn |
Hercules Beetle vs Goliath Beetle: common questions
Which is bigger, a hercules beetle or a goliath beetle?
It depends what you measure. By total length the hercules beetle wins clearly, with big males reaching around 17 cm and holding the record for the longest beetle, but roughly 10 cm of that is the male's enormous horn. By bulk and weight the goliath beetle is heavier as an adult, up to about 50 g against roughly 30 g for a large hercules, and it has a much thicker, more solid body. As larvae the two are close, with both able to top 100 g, and the goliath grub is often cited as the single heaviest insect life stage known.
Are they related?
Only distantly, as members of the huge scarab beetle family. The hercules beetle is a rhinoceros beetle, in the subfamily Dynastinae, characterised by the large horns on males and a diet of rotting plant matter. The goliath beetle is a flower chafer, in the subfamily Cetoniinae, a group of often brightly patterned beetles that visit flowers and fruit and fly with the wing cases held closed. They look superficially alike because both are simply very large scarabs, but their closest relatives are different sets of smaller beetles on each continent.
Can you keep them as pets?
Both are kept by invertebrate hobbyists, and captive breeding is well established for the hercules beetle in particular. The main challenge is the larval stage, which lasts one to two years and needs a deep substrate of well-rotted hardwood (for hercules) or a protein-supplemented rotten-wood mix (for goliath), kept at the right temperature and humidity. Adults live only a few months and are relatively easy, needing fruit or beetle jelly and space to move. Goliath beetles are generally considered the harder of the two to rear because the larvae are fussy about their diet.