Stag Beetle near Kempty Falls, Mussoorie

From the archive record

Stag Beetle near Kempty Falls, Mussoorie. See on the western portion of Mussoorie, west of Landour, and near Hollow Oak Estate, below Kapurthala. Male stag beetles use their jaws to wrestle each other for favoured mating sites in a manner that parallels the way stags fight over females. Fights may also be over food, such as tree sap and decaying fruits. Despite their often fearsome appearance they are not normally aggressive to humans. Female stag beetles are usually smaller than the males, with smaller mandibles. As larvae, females can be distinguished from males by the presence of cream-coloured, fat ovaries visible through the skin around 2/3 down the larva's back. This footage is part of the professionally-shot stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collectio