Family: Lucanidae
Distribution
Near coastal areas of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania.
Identification
Adult. This beetle belongs to the family of stag beetles. It is 8–10 mm long, uniform brown in colour. They have long and characteristically shaped mandibles.
Larvae. Thy are similar in appearance to scarab beetle larvae, which are C-shaped and often sound in the soil feeding on plant roots.
Behaviour
They are usually found in decaying timber in the ground such as stumps of trees, but now they can also be found in decaying wood in moist subfloors where the bearers and joists were reduced to dust with only the outside layer of the timber remaining. It attacks both hardwood and softwood. If the wood remains moist (above 30%) and is decaying, then the beetles will continue to reinfest until the sapwood and heartwood are destroyed.
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