Japanese giant stag beetle
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Smaller Japanese giant stag beetles have a stronger shine.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Japanese giant stag beetle
- Scientific name
- Dorcus hopei
- Japanese name
- オオクワガタ
- Group
- Insects
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Coleoptera
- Family
- Lucanidae
- Genus
- Dorcus
The ōkuwagata of Japan is treated as a subspecies of this species. Other subspecies live outside Japan, from the Himalayas to East Asia.
A large stag beetle that lives in places such as woodlands with many sawtooth oaks and konara oaks.
Its body is black. The male's jaws curve like a bow, with a tooth on the inner side near the middle.
By day it usually hides in tree hollows, visiting sap at night. Good feeding spots are often held as territories by large males.
How the Japanese giant stag beetle lives
Larvae live in slightly dry parts of wood affected by white rot, such as sawtooth oak. Beetles that become adults in autumn stay in their pupal chambers through winter. Most beetles that fly to lights are small males or females.
京都府Basic data
- Size
- Body length: males 30–75 mm, females 30–45 mm
- Range
- Southern Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu
- Conservation status in Japan
- Vulnerable (VU)Assessed as Dorcus hopei binodulosusMinistry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020
Where the Japanese giant stag beetle has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- オオクワガタ
- 简体中文
- 中华大刀锹甲
- 繁體中文
- 中華大刀鍬甲
- 한국어
- 왕사슴벌레
- Español
- Ciervo volante de China
- Français
- Lucane de Hope
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 京都府 — 京都府レッドデータブック2015 オオクワガタChecked: 2026-11-03
- Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Red List 2020Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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