Stag Beetles: Knights of Moist Tropical Forests

It was a fine afternoon in a quiet village in Nagaland’s Phek district. I was seated on a stool, mid-interview with seven farmers, discussing the various edible insects consumed by the community. I was expecting the usual suspects: hornets, termites, maybe even silkworms. But then one of them casually dropped a bombshell: “There’s a beetle here worth 75 lakhs.”

I blinked. “Seventy-five what?”

“Lakhs,” he repeated, leaving me in sheer disbelief. Before I could wrap my head around this, another man, who had been mostly quiet until then, stood up and walked off. A few minutes later, he returned, cradling something in his hand. He opened it with reverence and held it out to me. Inside sat a magnificent sight: a stag beetle. Massive, polished, and quite astonishing. The only stag beetles I had seen before were the ones safely kept within the vaults in the Insect Museum at ATREE, Bangalore. 

Curating dead beetles in a cool, sterile lab is one thing. Having a live one gently placed into your palm in a Naga village? That was beyond pure magic.

The beetle flexed its glorious antler-like mandibles, more like a knight than an insect and clicked softly as if acknowledging the absurdity of being passed around like a trinket. I was smitten.

Horned Royalty: Meet The Stag Beetle

Stag beetles belong to the family Lucanidae, comprising over 1,500 species worldwide. These beetles are named after the oversized mandibles males possess, which resemble deer antlers. They are primarily used for combat, but not against predators. Instead, they’re used for romantic duels over mates. Males grapple like tiny wrestlers, often standing up on their hind legs, flipping each other off logs and trunks, trying to win both territory and the attention of a watching female. Their whole dating ritual is more like a WWE match.

India hosts several species of stag beetles (sadly, we don’t have an exact number or species list), most commonly in the genera Dorcus, Lucanus, and Odontolabis. India is also home to the world’s largest stag beetle: Prosopocoilus giraffa.

In general, male and female stag beetles differ significantly in appearance, especially size. Males can grow up to 12 cm and females up to 6 cm. Females lay close to 30 eggs either on decaying wood or soil. Stag beetles prefer moist forests and are especially fond of rotting logs, which serve as both nurseries for their grubs and sources of nutrition. The adult beetles are typically sap feeders, drawn to tree wounds oozing sugary liquid, while their larvae (grubs) are wood borers that spend months, sometimes years, tunnelling through decomposing wood. They’re slow developers, with a lifecycle that can stretch to three or even seven years in some species. The adults, however, live only a few months, just long enough to fight, mate, and leave the next generation tucked into a damp log. Since they feed only on deadwood, these beetles do not pose a threat to live trees. 

Microhabitats are everything for these beetles. Moist leaf litter, decaying trunks, and undisturbed forest floors provide the perfect mix of nutrients and protection from predators. The larvae do not bore into living trees but spend years inside soft, decaying wood, feeding on the fungi-rich fibres in buried stumps and fallen logs. Even subtle changes, such as removing stumps for firewood or tidying “messy” forest floors, can eliminate the conditions needed for an entire generation to develop. Without a steady supply of deadwood, already emerged adults may still appear at sap flows for a season, but the next generation never matures as the microhabitat for the growth of grubs is missing. This is why loss of deadwood due to deforestation, plantation management, and firewood collection has become one of the most serious threats to stag beetles, shrinking their range in India and elsewhere.

Stag Beetle Grubs On The Naga Menu

While most urban Indians would recoil at the idea of eating beetle larvae, many Naga communities view stag beetle grubs as a seasonal delicacy. In Northeast India, particularly Nagaland, the grubs are harvested from rotting logs in the forest and roasted or boiled. They’re said to be nutty, rich in protein, with a texture between soft-boiled egg and roasted chestnut. However, it’s important to note that while the adults are admired, it’s the larvae that are eaten. Adults are rarely consumed, likely owing to their tough exoskeleton. 

The Obsession: Why The World Wants Stag Beetles

Back to that mind-blowing price tag!

When locals say a beetle is “worth 75 lakhs,” they’re referring only to the staggering black-market value of certain rare stag beetle species in the international pet and collector trade. Japan and parts of Southeast Asia, in particular, have a thriving market for exotic beetles, alive and kicking. Collectors will pay top yen for large, pristine male specimens, especially those with long mandibles and undamaged bodies. Species like Odontolabis and Prosopocoilus are especially prized.

The price is often exaggerated in local retellings (and who can blame them, 75 lakhs is an excellent conversation starter), but if a single beetle can fetch thousands of rupees if smuggled successfully, then multiply that by a hundred beetles, and we have an illegal trade that rivals that of orchids, pangolins, and songbirds. Trafficking routes have emerged, often using unsuspecting tourists or online platforms to move beetles to collectors.

Although the Northeast (particularly the Eastern Himalayas) and the Western Ghats are recognised as hotspots for stag beetles in India, the data are uncertain and deficient. With almost no information on their ecology and only fragmentary taxonomic records, our understanding of stag beetle diversity, distribution, and natural history is still remarkably limited. This lack of baseline information poses serious challenges because, without reliable population data or updated distribution records, it becomes difficult to recognise declines or set priorities for protection. Added to this are habitat loss from deforestation, the removal of deadwood, which is essential for larval development, and the growing threat of illegal trade. While hornbills and pangolins draw conservation headlines, beetles slip under the radar, both figuratively and literally.