Watch a Hercules Beetle Metamorphose Before Your Eyes

Watch this beetle go from larvae to giant. The Hercules beetle is one of the largest flying insects in the world. As grubs they are impressively large. As beetle expert, Brett Ratcliffe, puts it, they “are basically the size of a Polish sausage.”

Hercules beetles also go through metamorphosis, like a butterfly. Except, a butterfly spins a cocoon out of silk. The beetle builds a pupal chamber out of its own faeces and, in it, transforms. As an adult, male Hercules beetles can stretch up to 18cm long including their horns.