These beetles have been recorded lifting up to 850 times their own weight - that is the equivalent of a human lifting a lorry. They are considered to be the strongest animals on earth proportionally.

The atlas beetle (Chalcosoma atlas), is one of the world’s largest beetles. This specimen measures 10.5 cm from its horn to its abdomen, and its wing span is 19cm. Atlas beetles belong to the subfamily (Dynastinae) ‘rhinoceros beetles’, so called because of the horns on the males‘ heads that they use when fighting over females. Often the battles take place high in the trees where the loser will be tossed off the side and fall many metres to the ground, so he then has to make a long climb back to the top, where another battle awaits.

The beetles start their life as larvae about the size of a human thumb living in the trunks of fallen trees and eating the rotting wood. After two years they become pupae and eventually hatch into beetles when they feed on plant nectar and fruit. Although they can fly, atlas beetles are so heavy that they have trouble getting into the air from the ground, so to become airborne they usually launch themselves off trees. They are found mainly in Malaysia.