Siamese Rhinoceros Beetle

Xylotrupes socrates · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Scarabaeidae

Also called: Fighting Beetle

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Siamese Rhinoceros Beetle
Photo: Thomas Brown, CC BY

The Siamese rhinoceros beetle has a dark chestnut-brown or black exoskeleton and elytra, with males bearing two inward-curving, bifurcated horns on the head and pronotum.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Both sexes are dark chestnut-brown when young and turn black as they age. Males have two horns, one on the head and one on the pronotum, each split and curling inward.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native distribution covers the same southeast Asian countries listed for its habitat.

Source: Wikipedia

Lookalikes

Male beetles look like other dynastid beetles because of the two inward-curving, bifurcated horns.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 1 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Maryland.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Same family (Scarabaeidae)

Japanese BeetleJapanese BeetlePopillia japonicaDamages trees, gardens or cropsCommon Green June BeetleCommon Green June BeetleCotinis nitidaDamages trees, gardens or cropsPhyllophaga crinitaPhyllophaga crinitaPhyllophaga crinitaDamages trees, gardens or cropsEuropean Rose ChaferEuropean Rose ChaferCetonia aurataMediterranean Spotted ChaferMediterranean Spotted ChaferOxythyrea funestaDamages trees, gardens or cropsOriental BeetleOriental BeetleExomala orientalisDamages trees, gardens or crops

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylotrupes_socrates

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.