Large males can approach 45–60 mm including the mandibles; females are much smaller.
Fine-art photographic collection
Prosopocoilus serricornis
A Madagascan stag beetle whose saw-edged male jaws became both a sexual weapon and, at the grub stage, a traditional human food.
About this species
Prosopocoilus serricornis(Latreille, 1817)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Prosopocoilus serricornis is a large stag beetle endemic to Madagascar. Males carry elongated serrated mandibles, females are much more compact, and the wood-feeding larvae are culturally significant as edible insects.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Lucanidae · Prosopocoilus
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
MadagascarBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Madagascar
Forest and woodland containing large decaying logs.
Adults are mainly crepuscular or nocturnal and visit sap or fermenting fruit.
Tree sap and fruit as adults; decomposing wood as larvae.
Solitary; males use the mandibles in contests.
What makes this species remarkable?
The male mandibles are expanded into paired saws with repeated internal teeth, a structure used to grip, lift and dislodge rival males rather than to chew the rotten wood eaten by the larva.
Madagascan people have traditionally eaten the large larvae, making the same animal a forest decomposer, a sexually weaponised adult and a documented human food at different points in its life cycle.
The species is confined to Madagascar, where dramatic differences between small females and long-jawed males are produced from the same genome by sex and larval nutrition.
Sources and scientific references
- GBIF — taxon record/search for Prosopocoilus serricornis
- Catalogue of Life — taxon search for Prosopocoilus serricornis
- Peer-reviewed review documenting consumption of Prosopocoilus serricornis larvae in Madagascar
- Taxonomic record and Madagascar distribution of Prosopocoilus serricornis
- Photographic dorsal and ventral record of P. serricornis