The virtual models are coloured in cool blues and greens, indicating low levels of mechanical stress. For example, if you apply twisting forces to a Japanese rhino beetle’s horn, it holds up well. In her computer, she could watch what happens if one rhino beetle fought its rivals in the style of another.Īnd what happens is: the horns do badly. And McCullough used it to simulate collisions between beetles. Biologists have used it to simulate collisions between jaws and prey. Engineers use it to simulate collisions between vehicles and obstacles. You scan an object to create a three-dimensional virtual model, and then subject that model to forces of your choice. But McCullough did something similar, using a technique called finite element analysis (FEA). You can’t just pack a rhino beetle off to a new dojo, train it in a different martial art, and see how it performs. This study wouldn’t have been possible through direct experiments. As with the longswords, form and function are linked. Each one resists the types of forces that its owners typically experience, but threatens to snap or buckle when used in a different way.

McCullough has found that the shape and structure of these horns are beautifully adapted to each beetle’s individual fighting style. During fights, it tries to slide this tip under its opponent, to lift and twist it off its branch. And the Japanese rhino beetle ( Trypoxylus dichotomus), much beloved of cartoons and anime, has an upwardly curving horn that ends in a pitchfork. The calliper beetle ( Golofa porteri) has a much narrower horn with a serrated edge, which it uses to lift and shove its opponent-more of a fencer to the Hercules beetle’s wrestler. (It can lift 850 times its own weight and, until recently, held the title of world’s strongest animal. It looks like a disembodied pincer, and behaves like one too-males grab their opponents in a full-body hold, prise them off their perch, and toss them to the ground. The largest of them, the Hercules beetle ( Dynastes hercules) has a huge horn curving down from its back and another curving up from its head. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Įach species of rhino beetle has its own distinctive headgear, and each fights in a different style.

They’re for grabbing, throwing and shoving rival males off branches and tree trunks, in a bid to control access to females. But that’s not the case for the rhino beetles. In many animals, females choose males on the size and shape of their ornate structures.

As their name suggests, the males of these large, powerful insects have elaborate horns on their heads. Form followed function.Įrin McCullough from the University of Montana found a similar trend among smaller but no less impressively armed combatants- rhinoceros beetles. A cutting weapon became more of a stabbing one. The central groove (the fuller) that lightened and strengthened the old models was replaced by a ridge (the riser) that conferred rigidity. Longswords evolved to be longer, narrower, and more pointed. Now, sword-wielders had to thrust their weapons into gaps and weak points-a new kind of fighting that required a different kind of blade.

But once plate armour entered the battlefield, these slashes were useless. When longswords first came into use in the 13th century, knights mainly used them to slash through an opponent’s chainmail.

Hercules rhinoceros beetle lifting