stag beetle

noun

: any of a family (Lucanidae) of mostly large beetles having males with long and often branched mandibles suggesting the antlers of a stag

Examples of stag beetle in a Sentence

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In one iconic sequence, the team used black lighting to attract nocturnal insects like fireflies and stag beetles. Tony Bradley, Forbes, 14 Jan. 2025 Much of the stag beetle's lifecycle is spent underground as a white grub molting into larger and larger forms before hatching in two to three years during the summer. Ars Technica, 14 Jan. 2025 So, too, palm-size rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles. Matt Alt, The New Yorker, 13 May 2020 Biologists say that these fantastic shapes—from the giant curved tusks of woolly mammoths to the nightmarish jaws of stag beetles—evolved to ward off competition from rival males and to impress females. Kendall Powell, Scientific American, 24 Dec. 2019 London's population of nine million people live along 15,000 other species, such as eight types of bats hanging around nature reserves, deer roaming parks, and the largest population of stag beetles in England hiding in ancient forests. Simon Ingram, National Geographic, 26 July 2019 Nearly 15,000 species live there, including eight species of bats, the largest population of stag beetles in England, and hundreds of bird species. Stephen Leahy, National Geographic, 19 July 2019 Spiky-antennaed stag beetles sit on loaves of bread and bunches of grapes on a dining-room table. Susan Dunne, courant.com, 6 June 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1681, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of stag beetle was in 1681

Dictionary Entries Near stag beetle

Cite this Entry

“Stag beetle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stag%20beetle. Accessed 24 Jan. 2025.

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