A book to find out how to identify Japanese stag beetles
English page will be prepared soon.
Ingredients of sap from oak trees
In Japan even kids know rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles feed on sap from oak trees. Although the importance of the sap for the insects is well-known, it is not famous what does the sap consist of. Some people were aware that the sap contained not only sugar but protein (please see another post). However, I could not find a literature that listed ingredients of the sap. The ingredients were reported in a book Recently I found what I was looking for. The book…
A guidebook “Recent studies on stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles”
I introduced a guidebook that gathered recent studies on stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles in the Japanese page of this post. The publication of the book was accompanied by the exhibition that shows over 500 species of the insect specimens. The reason why I introduced this book was that it explains latest studies in easy-to-understand way for non-academic people. These images are uploaded by permission of the publisher. I wish I could introduce the book to you in English as well, but…
An insect illustrated encyclopedia published more than 100 years ago
“Nihon senchu zukai” or ” Thousand insects of Japan” is an insect illustrated encyclopedia written by Dr. Shonen Matsumura in 1904－1907. The book is accessible through National Diet Library digital collection (Please see the links in “Reference”). Here I reprint the pages that have stag beetles and rhinoceros beetles in accordance with its site policy. “Nihon senchu zukai”, volume 2, frame number 2. “Nihon senchu zukai”, volume 3, frame number 101. “Nihon senchu zukai”, volume 3, frame number 103. “Nihon…
Art and a stag beetle in Europe – “Lucanus cervus depictus”
I got a book “Lucanus cervus depictus”, which covers arts and culture with an European stag beetle “Lucanus cervus”. The book contains 239 beautiful pictures of art. The oldest one dates back to 4000 B.C. and the newest ones come to 21 st century. There are chapters of mythology, art, entomology and decoration/illustration. In the chapter of art, there are many arts with the stag beetle drawn in 16-18 st century. Previously I wrote that many Japanese (especially children) are…