Lucanus cervus and kite

A big stag beetle landed our terrace table last week afternoon.As it is a protected endangered species we treated it with respect. It was offered some grapes and we were very careful about providing sufficient place for a decent take-off later on. Something at least we felt good about, for it turned out that adults feed only on fruit nectar (and no fruit) and that they flight better as one could assume considering their corpse’s anatomy! Feeling a bit ashamed not knowing all these facts all I can say is- we still behaved much better as kids centuries ago enjoying  flying the stag beetles attached on a thread!

 Their slow, lumbering flight, usually at dusk, makes a distinctive low-pitched buzzing sound. The males fly more readily than the females. The modern Italian word for a toy kite cervo volante (and hence the French cerf-volant) may derive from the ancient amusement of flying the beetles on a length of thread.from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucanus_cervus