Dorcus parallelipipedus
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources11 archives
Databases and archives Dorcus parallelipipedus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation11 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility82 565 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI65 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics68 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Tree of SexTree of Sex Consortiumgenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Close-up of D. parallelipipedus Dorcus parallelipipedus, the lesser stag beetle, is a species of stag beetle found in Europe. Both sexes resemble the female stag beetle (Lucanus cervus), though they are a uniformly blackish colour rather than having the chestnut brown wing covers of the larger species. Males have distinctly knobbed antennae, and although their jaws are somewhat larger than those of the females, they are nowhere near as large as those of many other male stag beetles. The lesser stag beetle is similar in appearance to the related antelope beetle (Dorcus parallelus) of North America. Adults are from 18 to in length. Like those of other stag beetles, the white, C-shaped larvae feed on wood. Adults as well as larvae are found in very soft decaying wood of broad-leaved trees, especially ash (Fraxinus excelsior), beech (Fagus sylvatica) and apple (Malus spp). Adults are active in summer and disperse by flying, and sometimes coming to outside lights. This is a widespread species in most of England and is generally common (except in the far north), coming into gardens wherever there are orchards, old hedges or large trees.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Diet & foraging2
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Dorcus parallelipipedus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
The complete instruction manual Dorcus parallelipipedus carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 185×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database · GoaT · Tree of Sex Database · GoaT · Coleoptera Karyotype Database +1
diploid1×GoaT · Coleoptera Karyotype Database
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Dorcus parallelipipedus. Above itBeside it, each dot is one dated fossil find — few enough to count, so they are drawn individually rather than as a graph.
How it livedPBDB
Record type82 567 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions23 of 60 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Vitoria, ES | 308 |
| Paro, BT | 240 |
| Geneva, CH | 217 |
| Brussels, BE | 215 |
| Bern, CH | 150 |
| Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiulocation not on record | 117 |
| SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record | 83 |
| Naturéum — Muséum cantonal des sciences naturelles, Lausanne, Département Zoologielocation not on record | 81 |
| Zürich, CH | 79 |
| NMOKlocation not on record | 57 |
| Musee d'Histoire Naturallelocation not on record | 57 |
| SGHNlocation not on record | 55 |
| GVlocation not on record | 51 |
| CIBIOlocation not on record | 41 |
| Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record | 34 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 32 |
| Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciêncialocation not on record | 31 |
| Museum Ludovicae Ulricae, Zoology Institute of the University of Uppsalalocation not on record | 30 |
| Tartu, EE | 27 |
| Frauenfeld, CH | 23 |
| Tilburg, NL | 20 |
| Philadelphia, US | 20 |
| Fribourg, CH | 19 |
| Dhaka, BD | 18 |
| Nijmegen, NL | 17 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 14 |
| Naturmuseum Solothurnlocation not on record | 14 |
| Paris, FR | 10 |
| SFRAlocation not on record | 10 |
| ZSMlocation not on record | 9 |
| Sion, CH | 8 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 6 |
| South Kensington, GB | 5 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 5 |
| CBDClocation not on record | 4 |
| Musée de l'Hospice du Grand-Saint-Bernardlocation not on record | 4 |
| Porrentruy, CH | 4 |
| Naturmuseum Oltenlocation not on record | 4 |
| Salzburg, AT | 3 |
| Radicondoli, IT | 3 |
| IFR-DNFlocation not on record | 3 |
| Department of Molecular Biodiversity, Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Scienceslocation not on record | 3 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 2 |
| Natural History Museum, Londonlocation not on record | 2 |
| Naturmuseum St. Gallenlocation not on record | 2 |
| Archäologie und Museum Baselland - Museum.BLlocation not on record | 2 |
| NCMGlocation not on record | 2 |
| Bavarian State Collection of Zoologylocation not on record | 2 |
| WULS-DFPElocation not on record | 2 |
| SGAV-and-NHMDlocation not on record | 2 |
| UGRlocation not on record | 2 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 2 |
| Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausenlocation not on record | 2 |
| BioFokuslocation not on record | 2 |
| European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT)location not on record | 1 |
| College Station, US | 1 |
| Ugentlocation not on record | 1 |
| Barcelona, ES | 1 |
| University Park, US | 1 |
| MUZOO - Musée d'histoire naturelle de La Chaux-de-Fondslocation not on record | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Dorcus parallelipipedus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.