Starevich created
Lucanus Cervus in 1910 while he was director of the Museum of Natural History in
Kaunas,
Lithuania. He had been commissioned to produce four nature
documentaries. Starevich had originally intended to film live stag beetles
rutting over a mate, but the stage lighting in use at the time would quickly kill the nocturnal insects. Instead, Starevich experimented with making
articulated puppets out of dried stag beetle specimens. He fitted them with wires glued to their abdomens by
sealing wax, replacing their legs. He drew each position of movement and composed each position before shooting the insects with a frequency of sixteen
frames per second, the maximum at the time. Starevich animated these puppets with
stop-motion to recreate their fighting behavior as accurately as possible. The result was not only the first recorded use of puppetry in film, but the first use of dead insects as stop-motion puppets. Starevich would make widespread use of stop-motion throughout his career as a
filmmaker and
animator. The unusual idea was reportedly inspired by the short film
Les allumettes Animées (
The Animated Matches) (1908) by French animator
Émile Cohl. == References ==