#3493 · 🪲 beetles
Horned Passalus Beetle
Odontotaenius disjunctus
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © cyric · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- 2. © Katja Schulz · CC BY 4.0
- 3. © Andreas Kay · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- 4. © Sarah Reilly · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Katja Schulz · CC BY 4.0
- 6. © Katja Schulz · CC BY 4.0
- 7. © Lee Elliott · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- 8. © Matthew Beziat · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © Katja Schulz · CC BY 4.0
- 10. © Katja Schulz · CC BY 4.0
what is it?
The patent-leather beetle or "Jerusalem beetle" ( Odontotaenius disjunctus ) is a beetle in the family Passalidae which can grow to just over an inch-and-a-half long. They are shiny black and have many long grooves on their elytra. They have a small horn between their eyes, and clubbed antennae. When disturbed, adults produce a squeaking sound by rubbing their wings on the abdomen. This is called stridulation, and is often easy to hear. This is apparently used for...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 32,997 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger in 1800 (226 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Horned Passalus Beetle
- scientific name
- Odontotaenius disjunctus
- class
- Insecta
- order
- Coleoptera
- family
- Passalidae
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 32,997
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1800 by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 122214, Wikidata Q519010, GBIF 6992074, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.