Stag beetles

Stag beetle (left) and beetle (right). Both are male

One of Japanese children’s fun in summer is catching and keeping beetles and stag beetles. I used to go into mountains and take some kinds of them by digging root of oak trees or looking around the tree sap. Keeping many stag beetles is kind of status symbol of children and we would show the small pets each other. Wikipadia says stag beetles inhabit mainly in Asia, especially in warmer area. So they may be uncommon for Americans or Europeans. We have now some at the lobby of J-Hoppers Hiroshima hostel and you can see them.