Flying stag beetle

Lucanus cervus (Ciervo volante) on the hills above San Juan de Plan in the Pyrenees of Huesca:

Proyecto Ciervo Volante writes:

Flight abilities seem, in principle, well developed. Fight speed reaches 6 km/h (D’Ami, 1981) but dispersal abilities are unknown. There are XIX century tales about mass movements (Darwin, 1871; Lacroix, 1968; Paulian & Baraud, 1982). Anyway, atrophy of flight muscles after some time has been reported (Paulian, 1988), which could limit dispersal likelyhood. Research is also required about whether sexes show differential ability or tendency to fly. Drake (1994) states that only males regularly fly but this seems not very likely. Given the ephemeral nature of larval food source, females must surely move in order to find adequate substrates for laying eggs.

Reproduction
Males are said keep territories (Huerta & Rodríguez, 1988) within which they fly looking for females. This story looks doubtful given the observations of groups of males. More likely is the gathering of males around the females, which are probably found by means of sexual pheromones, or at the feeding places.

“Pliny the Elder noted that Nigidius called the stag beetle lucani after the Italian region of Lucania where they were used as amulets. The mandibles of the male beetle are like the antlers of a deer.” “Contra el mal de ojo son efectivos: una castaña de Indias, el cuerno de un buey, de un macho cabrío, o incluso de un ciervo volante; una rama de hinojo, una cuerda de siete nudos o el diente de un jabalí.”

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