Species Hierarchy
Kingdom ANIMAL (ANIMALIA)
Phylum JOINTED LEGGED ANIMALS (ARTHROPODA)
Class INSECTS (INSECTA)
Order BEETLES (COLEOPTERA)
Family BEETLES - FLOWER BEETLES (SCARABAEIDAE - CETONIINAE)
SubFamily BEETLES - GOLIATH PART B, AFRICA ONLY (GOLIATHINI - EUDICELLA, ETC.)
Common name:
Scentific name: EUDICELLA GRALLI GRALLI

TWO MALES AND FEMALE

Species Info:

This lifeform is found in central Africa.

Eudicella gralli subspecies gralli can be recognized by the dark tibias. Its origin is western Zaire. Eudicella gralli is found from west Africa (Ghana and Ivory Coast with subspecies schultzeorum) south to Zaire and west to Kenya. Although E. gralli has several color forms, this species is easy to recognize in that it has horn tips that diverge widely. There are solid green color forms, striped color forms, and forms with four spots. A large male of Eudicella gralli is typically about 4.2 cm in length, but examples up to 5.0 cm are known.

Eudicella woermanni forms mimicry pairs with Eudicella gralli in many places in their combined ranges. However, Eudicella woermanni does not have widely diverging horn tips.

Coelorrhina hornimani hornimani forms a mimicry pair relationship with Eudicella gralli gralli in western Zaire.

Eudicella Genus contains about 16 different species. Following Allard in Sciences Nat they are listed below with their approximate ranges: (An * indicates the 10 species that are pictured herein.)

SPECIES                          RANGE
E. aethiopica                    Ethiopia
E. colmanti*     Blunt Tips      Congo, C. Africa, and NE Zaire
E. ducalis*      Giant           East Zaire
E. euthalia*                     Kenya to Natal
E. frontalis*    Blunt Tips      Ivory Coast, Ghana, etc.
E. gralli*       Wide Fork       Ivory Coast to Kenya
E. hereroensis*                  Namibia
E. immaculata*                   S. Kenya
E. inexpectata                   North Congo
E. intermedia                    S. Cameroon
E. morgani                       Ivory Coast, Ghana, etc.
E. nyassica*                     S. Tanzania
E. smithi*                       Kivu to Zimbabwe
E. tetraspilota*                 Katanga to Burundi
E. trimeni      Unusual Orange   Natal to S. Africa
E. woermanni*   Narrow Fork      Cameroon to Malawi

All the species of Eudicella share the common feature of a forward pointing male head horn that is forked some distance away from the head. Because of the variation in size and horn development between individuals, it is difficult to separate the species based upon horn size and horn shape. However, E. colmanti and E. frontalis have  unusual thickened horns that do not terminate in a sharp point.

Two of the most widespread species, woermanni and gralli, both have multiple color forms which mimic each other in selected portions of their ranges. For example, both E. gralli gralli and E. woermanni woermanni have solid green forms, and E. gralli gralli and E. woermanni pogei have striped forms.  These two species both also contain spotted forms. The way to separate the two species is not based on color patterns, but that E. gralli has a very wide forked horn, and E. woermanni has a forked horn with smaller less diverging branches.

Flower Beetles (Cetoniinae subfamily) is a group of scarab beetles that typically feed as adults on flowers of various plants. Many of the species are very beautifully colored.  Although there are a few interesting species in this subfamily found in the New World, the vast majority of the large and colorful species are found in Africa and the Indo-Australian regions. Kaoru Sakai estimates that there are about 3,200 known species of flower beetles.

Scarab Beetles, family Scarabaeidae, are worldwide in distribution. They usually have a small club-like antennae. For ease in information retrieval, the subfamilies of this extremely large family are treated herein as a separate families.

Scarab Family of Beetles has been arbitrarily divided here into the following groups:

         Cetoniinae Subfamily      Flower Beetles
         Dynastinae Subfamily      Rhino or Horned Beetles
         Scarabaeinae Subfamily    Dung Beetles and related
         Melolinthinae Subfamily   June beetles and related
         Ruteliinae, etc.          Rest of the scarabs

Beetles (Order Coleoptera) are a diverse group of insects found throughout the world. They usually can fly and typically have four wings. Two of the wings are hardened (elytra) and serve as a body cover to protect the flying wings and abdomen. Beetles begin their life as a larvae or grub that goes through a metamorphosis that turns this worm-like creature into an adult with six legs and four wings. There probably are over 500,000 species of beetles in the world. However, that number is only conjecture as the United States does not have a complete list of its known species.

The United States has relatively few exotic beetles. However, countries like Brazil, Mexico, Ghana, Zaire, Malaysia, and Peru have many beautiful beetles.  

Exotic beetles are such a fascination in Europe and Japan that they are collected much as coins are collected throughout the rest of  the world.

Insects (Class Insecta) are the most successful animals on Earth if success is measured by the number of species or the total number of living organisms. This class contains more than a million species, of which North America has approximately 100,000.

Insects have an exoskeleton. The body is divided into three parts. The foremost part, the head, usually bears two antennae. The middle part, the thorax, has six legs and usually four wings. The last part, the abdomen, is used for breathing and reproduction.

Although different taxonomists divide the insects differently, about thirty-five different orders are included in most of the systems.

The following abbreviated list identifies some common orders of the many different orders of insects discussed herein:

   Odonata:      Dragon and Damsel Flies
   Orthoptera:   Grasshoppers and Mantids
   Homoptera:    Cicadas and Misc. Hoppers
   Diptera:      Flies and Mosquitoes
   Hymenoptera:  Ants, Wasps, and Bees
   Lepidoptera:  Butterflies and Moths
   Coleoptera:   Beetles

Jointed Legged Animals (Phylum Arthropoda) make up the largest phylum. There are probably more than one million different species of arthropods known to science. It is also the most successful animal phylum in terms of the total number of living organisms.

Butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, various insects, spiders, and crabs are well-known arthropods.

The phylum is usually broken into the following five main classes:

   Arachnida:      Spiders and Scorpions
   Crustacea:      Crabs and Crayfish
   Chilopoda:      Centipedes
   Diplopoda:      Millipedes
   Insecta:        Insects

There are several other "rare" classes in the arthropods that should be mentioned. A more formal list is as follows:

   Sub Phylum Chelicerata

     C. Arachnida:      Spiders and scorpions
     C. Pycnogonida:    Sea spiders (500 species)
     C. Merostomata:    Mostly fossil species

   Sub Phylum Mandibulata

     C. Crustacea:      Crabs and crayfish
      
   Myriapod Group

     C. Chilopoda:      Centipedes
     C. Diplopoda:      Millipedes
     C. Pauropoda:      Tiny millipede-like
     C. Symphyla:       Garden centipedes

   Insect Group

     C. Insecta:        Insects

The above list does not include some extinct classes of Arthropods such as the Trilobites.

Animal Kingdom contains numerous organisms that feed on other animals or plants. Included in the animal kingdom are the lower marine invertebrates such as sponges and corals, the jointed legged animals such as insects and spiders, and the backboned animals such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

 

Search Region:
World
Species Range:
Click to enlarge
Photos
(Click on an image below to display at left)

TWO MALES AND FEMALE

 


Quick Jump:
Click to jump to
COELORRHINA LORICATA OBERTHURI
Backward 10 species
Click to jump to
EUDICELLA FRONTALIS
Backward 1 species
Click to jump to
EUDICELLA GRALLI MECHOWI
Forward 1 species
Click to jump to
EUDICELLA WOERMANNI TRILINEATA
Forward 10 species