346 
ORYCTES RHINOCEROS, Linn, 
The Rhinoceros, or Date-palm beetle. 
Reference :—Linn. Syst. Nat., ed. 10,1758, 346; ed. 12, 1767, 544. 
Steb. Inj. Ins. Ind. Forests, 37. 
See also Circulars on Agricultural Economic Entomology issued 
by the Trustees of the Indian Museum No. 4—Oryctes Rhino- 
ceros (1903.) 
Classification :—Order, COLEOPTERA. Family, Scarabeide, 
This is the common date and cocoanut palm-borer of Southern 
India. Its grubs have been reported as feeding upon the roots 
of young Casuarina seedlings and other trees. 
Larva.—A large stout curved grub. Head flat, purplish- 
brown. Mandibles brownish to black, large and stout; antennz 
5-jointed, basal joint enlarged. On first three segments behind 
head are three pairs of light-brown, stout, long, 3-jointed legs. 
Body yellowish-white, last two segments blackish. The head is 
smaller in transverse diameter than the rest of the body. Body is 
very thick, corrugated, curved, and swollen out so as to be almost 
bag-shaped behind. On each side of the third to tenth seg- 
ments is a large dark-brown spiracle. Body above and below 
is thickly covered with brown spiky hairs except on last 
segment, where they aresmall and scattered. 
Length, taken round curve, 4 inches. Breadth 3 inch. 
Beetle.—Black, shining, massive and large, with a prominent 
horn which curves backwards on its head, from which it getsits 
name of rhinoceros beetle, The elytra are very convex above ; 
the insect being flat beneath. Shanks (tibiz) of legs armed 
with spikes, the front ones having each three spikes on their 
outer edges. A large roughly heart-shaped depression on front 
portion of thorax. A series of broad striz and punctures on 
elytra. Dark rufous beneath with hair of same colour in parts. 
The beetle is easily recognisable by its form, by its antennz 
ending in a series of terminal plates, by its spiked tibiz and 
5-jointed tarsi and great size. Length 1% inch, Breadth 
across elytra #ths inch. 
