Horned Passalus beetles are in the Bess beetle family Passalidae – a family with about 500 species of mostly New World, mostly tropical beetles. The species has also gone through lots of scientific names since it was described by Linnaeus in 1764 (some of them, more than once), having been placed in five different genera and been given a half-dozen species names before arriving at Odontotaenius disjunctus. Horn beetle probably refers to the horn on its face, although one author speculated that the beetle is shiny, like horn material. Bess beetle seems to come from the Old English “buss” (“kiss”), a reference to a kissy sound the beetle makes, Peg beetle because when it’s sticking its head out of a log, it looks like a carpenter’s peg, and Patent leather beetle is self-explanatory.
Its common names pertain to its appearance and its voice. The Insects of Duke University website calls them “ one of the most delightful discoveries one can make upon overturning logs.” Why Bess beetles? Because they exhibit what’s called “pre-social behavior,” and they vocalize like crazy, and they have lots of names, and then there’s the phoresy. The BugLady has been wanting to do an episode about Bess beetles for a long time, but she didn’t have a picture of one (many thanks to BugFans Tom and Joe for sharing).
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