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Occasional Issue Number 28 Print ISSN 1937-8343 Online ISSN 1937-8351 June, 2008 Horned Scarabs in the North of France WITHIN THIS ISSUE by Olivier Decobert Horned Scarabs of Northern France...... 1 [email protected]

Horned Scarabs Contest. 3 The first scarab is the “Rhinoceros Chrysina Photography..... 5 ” Oryctes nasicornis (Linné). Once a friend of mine gave me SOLA Award...... 8 some specimens he found near the town of Saint-Venant. They were Aphodiine Classicification Overview...... 11 in wood saw-dust with larvae. Despite my own research, I never In Past Years XI...... 14 found again this big beetle in the North of France, but I saw it The Garden Claw...... 20 several times in the South of my country. North specimens are not very big (male 27 mm, female 30 mm) compared to South where BACK ISSUES a friend of mine said once that Available At These Sites: I live in the North of France. he found a 47 mm male attracted Coleopterists Society This is not the best place for by light. Nevertheless, it is not www.coleopsoc.org/de- biodiversity, however, incredible the same subspecies. Oryctes fault.asp?Action=Show_ scarabs can be found here. I nasicornis belongs to Dynastidae Resources&ID=Scarabs present four species which are family. special because of the presence University of Nebraska www-museum.unl.edu/ of a horn for three of them and a research/entomology/ sort of trident for the last one. Scarabs-Newsletter.htm

EDITORS Rich Cunningham [email protected] Oryctes nasicornis (Linné) from Saint- Barney Streit Venant, North of barneystreit@hotmail. France. com

Bill Warner [email protected] The second species is smaller To finish, the fourth species (size (6-9 mm). This is Bolboceras 10 to 20 mm) is not really horned (Odontaeus) armiger (Scopoli). but has some kind of trident on It is rather rare and the single pronotum. Its name is Typhoeus specimen I have was found near typhoeus (Linné). I found this the village of Haravesnes in July. Its species several times in the biology is not well known, but one Marchiennes forest, which is not supposes that it lives at the expense far from my home. To find this of mushrooms, in spite of its , the best way is to look for belonging to family, a burrow, a little hole in the sandy which are often dung feeders. areas of this forest, and dig to find the beetle.

Bolboceras Bibliography: (Odontaeus) armiger (Scopoli) from DECOBERT O. (2006) – Typhoeus typhoeus Haravesnes, North of L. en forêt de Marchiennes – Bulletin de la France. Société Entomologique du Nord de la France 320: 12-13.

DECOBERT O. (2007) – Rhinocéros (et In the North of France a third autres coléoptères cornus) du Nord de la horned scarab can be found France - Bulletin de la Société Entomologique which is Copris lunaris (Linné). It du Nord de la France 322 : 17-19. belongs to family. It is a dung beetle.

Copris lunaris (Linné) 21 mm, no locality.

Typhoeus typhoeus from Marchiennes, North of France.

Page 2 World’s Horniest Beetle Contest by The Editors

After recently thumbing through another tussle.) So, Skippy, Dave, and a copy of Arrow’s Horned , Francois, send us some scarabaeine and reviewing Olivier Decobert’s photos to balance out the Golofa and excellent treatment of northern Dynastes photos that will come out France’s horned scarabs in this of Team Scarab, or Theodosia photos issue, it is apparent to us that the coming out of France. have by far the greatest development in horned The Rules armature of all the Coleoptera. But, of all the myriad horned • Send us an original, high-quality scarabs, which qualifies as the digital photo file to Barney Streit most...horned? After much ([email protected]) for argument and a brief sparring consideration. match among the editors over this age-old question, we were left • All entries received by July 31 will winded and unable to pin & label be eligible for consideration. for the rest of the day. It was then we decided to put the question • You may enter as many photos as out to the Scarabs readership. you wish, but only one photo per species per person, please. Here is your opportunity to enter your favorite horned • Entrants grant Scarabs a non- scarab(aeoid) to be named as exclusive, royalty-free license solely The World’s Horniest Beetle. to publish their photo’s in one To qualify, the species should or more issues of Scarabs (with possess spectacular horns because attribution to the photographer) of their ornateness and or size pertaining to this contest, as well relative to the size of the beetle’s as use of the photo on the shirt body. The size of the specimen commemorating the winner (not for itself does not matter. a small, profit use only). ornately-horned Onthophagus may be considered more worthy • All entries received before the of distinction than a large contest closing date will be reviewed dynastine. (For example, some by our lovely Scarabs staff members of our favorites are Diloboderus (not the editors), who will choose the abderus, Sulcophanaeus faunus top five photos. or one of the “mirabilis group” Onthophagus or O. (Proagoderus) • Those top five (along with as species, but Scarabs staff cannot many “honorable mentions that we participate...primarily because we can fit into space available) will be are too old and out of shape for published in a future Scarabs issue. Page 3 Prizes Future Contests

And now for the good part: The editors are cooking up ideas for future contests. These • The five winners will each receive include funniest collecting an autographed 8 X 10 print of experience, scariest collecting the photo of our curator Cheree experience, dumbest thing done (see also Scarabs Occasional Issue on a collecting trip, rarest scarab #19) seen on this page--definitely captured, and anything else we can suitable for framing! think of.

So get those camera’s clicking and The prize in each contest will be make sure your favorite horned an autographed, quality print of scarab is properly represented!! one of our employees.

Remember, if there are only five (or fewer) entries, you are guaranteed a signed print of Cheree for your bare wall. This print is destined to become a collector’s item!

Page 4 Photography of Pinned Chrysina by the Editors

Is it possible to get a decent harsh specular highlights. Even the photograph of a shiny Chrysina the white plastic was not able to using only a single light? Could provide just the right amount of such a setup be simple, and fold soft, diffuse light. flat so that it could be transported in a suitcase and survive a trip to a A little research helped provide museum? When Editors Rich and a starting point. The old Kodak Bill issued the edict that we would publication Close-Up Photography spotlight this genus in several showed that the way to photograph issues of Scarabs, these are the the surface of a mirror (or Chrysina questions we had to answer. gloriosa, which was their subject) is to bounce the light off of aluminum The essential question is “How foil, as seen below. do you photograph the surface of a mirror?” Moreover, we knew if we could figure out how to photograph Chrysina, we could use the same setup to photograph any scarab.

Initial testing involved a lighting tent consisting of three pieces of white, translucent plastic was made. The three sheets are held together by office clips. This was placed on a sheet of Styrofoam pinning material with black velvet laying on its surface. By the way, dust specks can easily removed from black velvet by touching the offenders with the sticky side of adhesive tape. A fourth sheet of plastic was placed on top of this contraption, with a small opening on the corner toward the camera through which the specimen could be photographed. The set-up (above) and the result (left). Three small shoe-mount flashes were placed so that they were facing the plastic, illuminating the beetle from three sides, provided Page 5 So, our lighting tent was lined with A small rectangular piece of foil on the two sides of the tent, cardboard, covered with foil, was covering the entire inside face of placed at an angle to the rear of the the sheet. A narrower strip of foil specimen (in the front corner of the was placed along the bottom half tent, nearest the camera) to bounce of the rear sheet. The top half was light into the area of the hind legs kept free of foil in order to let light and pygidium. The anterior section shine in from a single flash placed of the covering sheet of plastic was behind the rear panel. This flash lined with foil as well. was pointed upward at a 45º angle. The flash was set on manual mode. We suggest taking test shots with the highlight warning of the camera turned on. If you see the dreaded “blinkies” on the preview LCD, turn the power of the flash down and take another test shot.

We triggered the flash with two Pocket Wizards: one on the camera and one on the flash. These wireless devices are handy but expensive. A cord could be substituted in place of these triggers to save money. Cardboard could be substituted for The basic setup, showing the single flash at the rear of plastic for the two side panels to the box. save even more.

We choose a 200 mm f/4 macro lens for maximum working distance. This lens has a tripod collar and was attached to a tripod. The camera was mounted in a vertical orientation. The shutter speed is not very important as it only controls how much amibient light reflects off the specimen and into the camera. We used 1/60 of a second. The aperture was set at f/32 for maximum depth of field. The white balance on the camera was set to Flash, the ISO was set to The same setup, but with the reflector card in place at 100 for maximum color saturation the rear of the specimen. and sharpness and minimum noise.

Page 6 This photo shows the tripod, ball This photo shows the flash trigger head, 200 mm macro lens, and and flash, which is pointed upward the flash trigger attached to the toward the rear and top sheets of camera’s hot shoe. plastic. Note the use of medium binder clips to hold the sheets of Once everything is set and the plastic together. proper exposure is confirmed, the workflow simply becomes a matter We suggest that, given a choice, of removing the top sheet of the you shoot raw images instead of light tent, replacing the specimen, JPEGs, as this gives you maximum replacing the top sheet, re-framing control of the image during post The resulting photo and re-focusing, and taking the processing in Photoshop, which from this setup: photo. Desk lamps to illuminate the will be covered in a future issue. Chrysina argentiola. specimen are a great help for re- focusing.

Page 7 The SOLA Outstanding Presentation Award Newly Established for the Annual SOLA Symposium by Paul E. Skelley Florida State Collection of Florida Department of Agriculture and Cunsumer Services P. O. Box 147100 Gainesville, FL 32614-7100 [email protected]

Last year at the 2007 ESA on the protective paper cover. meetings in San Diego, the Knowing the book came from moderator of the SOLA Henry, I was honored to receive Symposium (Andrew T. B. this award for my talk reviewing Smith) presented an award for classification problems with the an ‘Outstanding Presentation’ Aphodiinae (partially printed in an in the symposium. The award article following this). Thus, I felt was a book graciously donated it would be a great tradition to use by Henry F. Howden, Confessing this book as an annual award and to a Murder by N. Drayson, which have Henry and all recipients sign it. has a spectacular scarab picture However, after receiving this award, details of its history were discovered making the award not so desirable.

After receiving the book and having a general positive consensus to establish the award, I asked Andrew to take it back for Henry to sign. Andrew bluntly refused several times to carry it back. Indeed, he refused to even touch the book. Upon further questioning Andrew admitted that Henry originally gave him the book stating “You can have this book. I didn’t care for it, and I don’t want it back!” It seems this book has some history which Henry and Andrew apparently knew.

Additional research uncovered some disturbing information. Legend has it the owner of this book will have bad luck with their scarab endeavors. The strength of this curse is directly proportional to the amount of text read by the Page 8 present owner. Examples of the curse’s affect are: your blacklight protection mentioned in Warner is on but no beetles come, banana 2008). In previous years, the award baits attract only cerambycids, 95% could have gone to presentations ethanol for DNA quality specimens with the largest power point file all turns into 50%, cladograms size, most attendees sleeping, never resolve, or show scarabs are presenter giving the best floor derived butterflies, expeditions for show (a juggling act comes to rare endemic scarabs only produce mind, thank you Dr. Robins, or ubiquitous exotics, local gangs the southeastern ‘rain beetle’ flight decide scarabs are aphrodisiacs, demonstrations as discussed in they raid your collection to smoke Skelley 1998), or maybe even an and don’t invite you, etc. outstandingly good talk. Who receives the award and for what Only the annual recipient(s) reason(s) is up to the Moderator. of the award has the ability to Although, they may need to call for temporarily break the curse’s cycle a vote. by signing the book at the annual SOLA Symposium. Thus, it is ultimately important that the book be returned to the moderator each year at the SOLA Symposium for presentation to the next honored individual(s). Note: This is an equal opportunity award. The moderator does not discriminate against anyone because of their age, gender, race, religious practices, virginity (or not), sexual orientation, physical or mental handicaps, or physical appearance (although wearing a Barney the Dinosaur costume while giving a presentation makes you an immediate “winner”).

The award must be given for a presentation that excels in some way. Thus, the award for an ‘outstanding’ paper may not be a good thing (after all it is a curse). For example, my presentation in 2007 was not the best. I received the award because no one had a seizure while looking at my graphics and I had the courage to talk about aphodiines in front of an audience (regardless of my personal Page 9 To accompany this cursed award, I Being that I procrastinated in created a box to house the book for signing the book, creation of its posterity. The box is made from the sepulcher presented continuous heartwood of a southern live oak, problems. The wood was obtained Quercus virginiana Miller, which from firewood stock which had was easily 300 years old when it been dead and curing for about 20 died. This dense hardwood holds years before I received it. No mystic powers of strength and would touch it and the wood cut was a popular wood used to build as if it was still green. The fresh cut sailing ships in the 1600-1700s. pieces started drying and continued These same ships may have to shrink and warp unit the box as brought back specimens studied sealed with polyethylene varnish. by Linnaeus, Fabricius, Olivier, et Even though recently made, the box al. This box was decorated with looks like a cursed object excavated a sacred Egyptian scarab rolling from a prehistoric tomb. More a dung ball (previous page) on research revealed (all too late) that which is part of the SOLA emblem the wood is indeed renowned for (see below). It will protect anyone ship making, but is ‘avoided like the (other than the recipient) who plague’ by furniture makers because handles the award from the curse it shrinks and cracks as it dries. between presentation ceremonies. Thus, it is appropriate that I used a cursed wood to house a cursed book.

As the years pass, it is hoped the growing list of signatures placed in this book by prominent SOLA members will become enough to break the curse forever, and it will become a true honor to receive the award and place your name among our esteemed forebears. For now, we can only hope to ‘dodge-the-bullet’ and pass it on to next years’ honored presenter.

Literature Cited

Warner, W. B. 2008. SOLA. Scarabs 23: 6-8.

Skelley, P. E. 1998. New and innovative uses for vacuum cleaners [Vibrations for sex appeal]. Scarabs 14:1-2.

Page 10 An Overview of Aphodiine Classification: What I Have Realized About the Xinae and Systematists by Paul E. Skelley Florida State Collection of Arthropods Florida Department of Agriculture and Cunsumer Services P. O. Box 147100 Gainesville, FL 32614-7100 [email protected]

[Part of a presentation given at Being new to serious Xine work the 2007 SOLA Scarab Workers and having just finished a couple symposium, San Diego, CA.] of sizable projects with them, I have battled many classification There has been much recent questions, AND in the process, discussion regarding aphodiine have learned much about the classification changes and the group, as well as the science. The various works proposing those underlying problem everyone will changes. Most of the arguments agree with is that the Xines are a resolve around the same issue; mess and any attempt at genus- are the genus-level taxa Genera level relationships without an or Subgenera. To understand the adequate understanding of the apparent current problem with species relationships will be full of the classification, and the bigger problems. picture, I must discuss some history of classifications before Our understanding of nature has commenting on aphodiines. changed over the last 200 years, as well as the underlying concepts I have experience with a couple how to create classifications. The poorly known, diverse taxa with 1800s and early 1900s saw the approximately the same number creation of the traditional Xine of species. The Aphodiinae classification which was based (Scarabaeidae) with many on characters obtainable with the researchers and enthusiasts, and available technologies (mostly the Erotylinae (Erotylidae) with candle light and hand lenses). very few of either. For each, the In the difficult megadiverse statements I am about to make Xines, these characters are often apply equally, and from what I rather superficial (phenetic), and have seen, probably applies to any contemporary researchers usually poorly known taxon. Therefore, based their concepts of a taxon on I am using the name Xinae to written descriptions, not actual represent any large taxon. Doing specimens. These researchers so, will allow me to present some proceeded to describe additional general facts, without going into taxa, placing them based on these, details. For the sake of SOLA [and all too often, inadequate concepts. SCARABS], we can consider it the Thus, Genus A contained round Aphodiinae. red species; Genus B elongate, Page 11 speckled species; Genus C small, data. Utilizing these tools, a few dulled species; Genus D species studies have been done, and fewer from Brasil; Genus E species that published, on the Xines which test are wingless; Genus F flattened the old classification. However, species, etc. Convergences, these studies all showed that our parallelisms, independent character previous classification is a mess, evolution, etc., of these more with numerous generic paraphylies superficial characters were not and maybe even some polyphyly. often recognized. Systematic work needs to be done nearly from scratch to organize As more and more taxa were the present conglomerate before described and ‘haphazardly’ placed we can attempt to resolve the by more and more researchers, big picture. Following standard the genera became meaningless cladistic principles, several steps chimerical assemblages. This are required in the process of compounded problems for those bringing the Xines to the point attempting to learn genera of that meaningful cladistic research the Xines. Rules requiring the can be done on a world basis to designation of type species of formulate a solid classification. This each genus helped resolve to our all starts with an understanding of understanding of new genera. the species (bottoms-up ) Yet, many older genera have only leading to recognizing genera recently had type species designated based on shared characters, and and many still require adequate moving up. Attempts to start in the revision of the included species. middle often lead to poor results and additional confusion when About 50 years ago, new (better) considering taxa not included in concepts were developed on how the analysis. to learn relationships and form classifications. In addition, new So, where so we presently stand? technologies allow us to obtain The Xines remain messy (Fig. 1). and analyze new or additional When you try to focus on one taxon or character, others vary and move around in an apparently unending slurry. Trying to define multidimentional and variable taxa in two dimensions is the problem.

Evolutionary relationships and character state changes can be viewed as a large 3-dimensional tree (Fig. 2). Selecting a set of characters to gain a view of these relationships is like bisecting a tree with a power line. You only get Figure 1. one view of the branching pattern. Page 12 based on our knowledge and experiences. The ranks we individually decide to use for these branches is the focus of these criticisms, and differ from researcher to researcher. Even with a perfect-complete cladogram, these differences of opinion may never be resolved. If we put all the energy we use to criticize each others work into research and publishing, we would all get that solid classification much sooner.

The Xines have researchers who practice the two main approaches Figure 2. to recognizing genera. The splitters, who define genera narrowly and Another set of characters bisect rigidly, often leading to many new the tree in a different direction, and small genera. And the lumpers, and views an apparently different who define genera in a more broad pattern. Yet it is the same tree. traditional sense which can lead to vague generic definitions, often Bottoms-up research is slowly leading to few large genera that resolving a branching pattern of are difficult to distinguish. Yet, relationships of taxa within the all workers currently publishing Xines. But, we are human and bottoms-up research only use want immediate gratification. We genera, not subgenera. want that solid classification now, and want someone else to do the Conclusion work. The size of the group and the magnitude of the mess requires The Xine classification is a we take many steps to fill in the mess, yet we are stuck with our picture, and that will take time. inadequate historical-traditional However, few are doing research concepts until enough research and publishing data to further our has been published allowing us to progress, and many (it seems) are present a full, solid classification. ready to criticize any steps being Progress is being made, steps made. are slowly being taken toward the common goal, and we are in Genera are human constructs. the midst of change. It will take All of our data and analyses only time before a solid genus-level help show branching patterns classification can be proposed and (relationships). We must decide accepted. Please bear with us, or what rank to give various branches join the team and help. Page 13 In Past Years - XI 1970-1974 by Henry F. Howden

[email protected] In 1970 I made two trips to the menu from looking at the table Colombia. The first was with three cloth. However, none of us came non entomologists. On February 15 down with anything, so it looked four of us flew to Cali, Colombia, worse than it was! with stops in Montreal, Miami, and Bogota, arriving 12 hours after The area was one of the wetter leaving Ottawa (I wonder how long places in Colombia, averaging it would take now!). After a night almost an inch of rain a day. I asked in Cali, I collected near the Rio several workers about a dry season Jamundi, in a protected area about and was told there wasn’t any. 10 mi. south of Cali. I took a few The housing was on a steep slope Scarabaeinae on dung, but lots of leading down to the dam, with the by beating low vegetation, main road above the housing. The which later made Anne happy. The slope above the road was mostly following day we left for Anchicaya mature tropical rain forest, with Dam (Photo 1) on the western slope just enough disturbance to make of the mountains at about 1,200 wonderful collecting. The one feet. on the road to Buenaventura. problem was the rain; we never There is a new dam now, but back had more than a few hours of then with the old dam there were sunshine and it rained at no set two rooms reserved for visitors in time. The first day it poured from the workers quarters. The mess hall 4 to 7 PM, but when I put out our aptly described where we ate; it was black light beside our building a mess. We ate after the workers from 8 to 11 PM, I took 20 species and could always tell what was on of scarabs - Dynastes ( Photo 2), Cyclocephala, Rhyparus, etc. Pit- falls and a Malaise trap yielded little that day. The next day we noted that one house on top of a small hill had fluorescent lights under an overhang with white walls and the school on an adjacent hill had the same thing. We found that it was OK to collect at the house lights, but the school custodian said no until she found out that we were only collecting beetles, then it was all right. An insect dealer came by Photo 1: Anchicaya housing above dam; trash can be every month and paid for the larger seen below some buildings. moths and Orthoptera. While our traps yielded Onthophagus and Page 14 some other dung beetles and a few Anomala, the various lights were extremely productive; the catch included a beautiful golden Chrysina along with many other genera. Other families of beetles were equally diverse, with weevils, as usual, being the most common. One of our group, who worked on bats, caused the most excitement. He had set a mist net over a deep pool in a stream to snare bats, when a branch knocked his glasses off into the pool. He had no spare pair Photo 2: One of the less common small beetles taken at Anchicaya. and was as blind as the proverbial bat without them. So we took turns successful. On Feb. 26 we left for diving for them, finally finding Ottawa, arriving 13 hours later. them after an hour; we cooled off that day! On the second trip to Colombia I was accompanied by Anne and two After five days of great collecting friends, one being George Vogt. during times it didn’t rain, we There were so many anecdotes about returned briefly to Cali and then George on various trips, that I have went south toward Silvia in the written about them separately in a central Andean range. Our rented previous note; they are not repeated transport was an old, asthmatic here. We flew to Bogota on July 5, Volkswagen van. We stopped once arriving at 8 PM. The next day, after to collect, then made a reservation exchanging money and picking for the night in Silvia, before up supplies, we went to nearby driving eastward in hopes of getting Tequendama, a beautiful waterfall to the paramo. About 10 miles east from a distance (Photo 3), but close of Silvia at 9,000 ft. our old van up smelled like an open sewer! An suffered from a shortage of oxygen oak forest was near the falls, and we and would not go any higher. We collected there until early evening, collected where we stopped, in cut- and put out a black light at dusk. Our over scrub until dusk, collecting efforts yielded Ancognatha, Golofa three species of scarabs under and Aphodius, the latter under dung. dung and lots of weevils on some The next day we took the road to La small oaks. We then returned to Aguadita, stopping along the way to our lodging in Silvia and put out collect in some cut over cloud forest; our black-light just out of town only weevils were collected, but that near a stream; the evening’s catch made Anne happy. There was a river - one Golofa (full moon). We then close to La Aguadita and we collected drove about 15 miles west of Silvia, until early afternoon, finding only stopping to collect, only to be some Aphodius (use of Aphodius interrupted by rain, so back to Cali. here and elsewhere is pre- Gordon My collecting near Cali was fairly and Skelley) under dung and lots of Page 15 weevils, as usual. Rain drove us to a nearby shop where George tried to eat a green platano; it was so foul that he tried to feed it to a tethered donkey, but its owner strongly objected, saying it might make the sick! The rain drove us back to Bogota. We left the next day for Leticia, Colombia’s only port on the Amazon. Our transport was an old DC 3 that had seen better days, but we got there without incident at 10:45 AM. After settling in a rather nice “motel” and eating lunch, we hiked to a cut-over forest (Photo 4). In the forest we started to pass some children who asked us what we were doing (or that was what we thought they asked). We replied in our “Spanglish” that we were collecting insects. They did not seem to understand. After several tries, we asked if they spoke Spanish. “Nao”, they replied, “Português”! We had walked into Brazil without realizing it! Another time we took a boat across the Amazon into Peru. Since we never found a defined line between Photo 3:Tequendama Falls near Bogota, Col.; looks good, smells bad. Colombia and Brazil, all of our material collected on that side of the river was labeled “Leticia”.

The day after we arrived in Leticia it turned cold, meaning that the daytime high temperature was perhaps 78° to 80°F. All the natives wrapped themselves in blankets and complained of the cold, while we were very comfortable. The cold was due to cold air drainage from the Andes, a rare event according to the locals. The weather didn’t Photo 4: Leticia, Colombia, forest edge; flat field in seem to bother the daytime foreground had small fish swimming across it when there collecting, but it slowed down was a hard rain. light collecting at night. However, Page 16 beating was great, particularly for ceratocanthids in clumps of dead continued on to Cali. leaves, and dung trapping was equally productive. After four days We spent several days collecting we flew to Cali via Bogota. We were near Cali with moderate results. due to leave at 10 AM, but found The most interesting event was with that two planes blocked the narrow an old jeep that we were using. On parking apron. When taxiing the way back from collecting it had between the planes, the wing tip a flat tire. At first we couldn’t get of our plane hit one of the other the tire off using the lug wrench, planes, breaking the light at the end eventually we found that on the old of our plane’s wing. Consternation! jeep the nuts turned the opposite One would think that we were direction to those of most cars. involved in a major accident. We After we determined that, we also sat on the ground for several hours discovered we didn’t have a jack! We while there were first arguments finally managed to change the tire (over ?) and then a hunt for a new by three of us holding up the rear light bulb. Meanwhile the old DC 3 end of the jeep (fortunately the flat got hot and the small fan over my was at the rear, not the front). We head lost several of its blades, one acquired sore backs and also learned of which bounced off of my head. a new meaning for “gato” - which we The unbalanced fan’s vibration knew meant “cat” but then found out caused further worry and, since all it was also used for “jack”. A better the fans were on the same circuit, van was obtained and we headed all the fans were turned off. Then for Silvia and the paramo. This time the plane, still sitting in place, really we made it to 13,000 ft. and one of got hot and we began to notice a the larger areas of paramo (Photo distinct fishy smell. It turned out 5). The day was partly cloudy, very that one of the passengers had a windy and cold; it drizzled every twenty or so pound piece of one of time a cloud went over, about every the large Amazon cat-fish wrapped ten minutes. When the sun was out, in some paper. Fortunately, the co- small butterflies zipped by. Beating pilot had the wit to cut the wires to the offending fan, so the rest could be turned on and we took off shortly thereafter. The odd part of the trip was not entirely over. A very large woman had acquired a small monkey which she kept on a short tether. When we started to go over the Andes on the way to Bogota, the plane cooled off and the monkey obviously was cold, so the lady stuffed the monkey down between her ample breasts. Every now and then the monkey would try to get Photo 5: Edge of paramo near Silvia, Colombia. out, it was an interesting flight! We landed safely in Bogota and then Page 17 mess. One day Anne started to drink her coffee, but spit it out, saying it was salty. The server didn’t believe her, but took her cup back to the kitchen which then erupted into laughter. Anne was right, they had used salt water for the coffee. Some freshly made coffee was fine. I should have mentioned that the lady scientist that we stayed with in Cali also came with us to Anchicaya, bringing along her baby, who was still in disposable Photo 6: Welcome group at airport in Panama. diapers. Dirty diapers were put in a plastic bag for disposal, not thrown sheets were useless, so all collecting down the hill, the usual method of was done by pulling apart plants disposing of all trash. As we were and looking under rocks. The best leaving, the cleaning lady came catch was one dead female lucanid. running after us saying that we had Later, we moved back down to forgotten something - the plastic 11,000 ft. where there were scrub bag with dirty diapers. She was told trees. There I took a passalid in a it was garbage, so she shrugged and log and found another dead lucanid; then threw it down the hill! Anne had great collecting, finding lots of Pandeleteius weevils. We On July 28 we left Cali and flew retreated to Silvia for the evening; to Panama. When we landed, it was too cold for light collecting. there were some young ladies The next morning we collected on in local costume and a band to alder near the river at Silvia; the greet the plane (Photo 6). I tried alder leaves were almost like lace to convince the others that this from the chewing by Pandeleteius. showed entomologists were being There was not much else except welcomed, but when the first class for a few Hoplia on some small passengers deplaned first and the yellow flowers and lots of tasty costumed greeters went with them, wild blackberries. Back in Cali the sceptics claimed victory. We we collected in nearby localities collected locally that night, getting for three days with excellent two Megasoma at the lights on results. Anne caused the most Madden Dam. The next day we excitement by beating a horned went to Cerro Campana in a rented viper (Bothrops ?) out of a tree; we car; the road up was very bad and did not collect it! On July 21 we twice we had to unload the car went to Anchicaya Dam, where just to get it over bad spots in the we had the usual good collecting road. We eventually reached the at light, but other collecting was top where there was a small motel slow owing to the many hours of (Photo 7), more used, apparently, intermittent rain. The mess hall, by overnight couples than by Page 18 as already mentioned, was still a entomologists. That night we set out our black light at the motel the motel was closed because of it. overlooking a good patch of forest. Apparently politics was involved; later Shortly thereafter it started to rain a number of houses were built in the hard and continued so all night. area. Beetles still came to our light; we collected about 15 species of scarabs including a good series of Rhyparus. The next morning we were told that a slide had blocked the road (Photo 8). When we went to investigate, we found a fair-sized tree across the road plus a car- sized boulder in the center of the road. We were told that the road would be cleared in a few days and since we had three more days, we didn’t worry. The downed tree provided excellent collecting for cerambycids; we were all surprised just how fast they came into a freshly downed tree. It rained off Photo 7: Motel on Cerro Campana, Panama. and on for the next two days and we began to worry about getting back, as we didn’t think the car rental people would take kindly to being told that we had left their car on top of Cerro Campana. The day before we were due to leave, we hired several locals to help cut up the tree and saved the larger sections for the next day. In the interim we collected between showers and had some excellent collecting in the forest, which has been greatly reduced in recent years. We left the next morning in the rain and with the help of about 15 local residents and props from the cut tree, inched our car Photo 8: Road blockage on Cerro Campana; good around the rock and made it down collecting on downed trees. to Balboa by 1 PM. We collected in Madden Forest until dark, turned in the car and packed our gear. The next day we left for Ottawa. We learned a year later that the rock was still blocking the road and that Page 19 A Faster Way to Set Pitfall Traps In Rocky Soils - A Quick Mini-Tip by Barney D. Streit

While collecting in Costa Rica in May of 2007, I misplaced my broken trowel. I was sure I had lost it, so I went looking to buy another. Trowels were impossible to find. How then was I to dig the holes for my dung and carrion traps? Desperate, I made a long- distance telephone call to Scarabs Headquarters for some advice. I asked for trap researchers Anne and Tammy (see Scarabs Occasional Issue #17, November, 2006). Tammy was at some University of Arizona physics lab investigating the integration of lasers in black light traps. Anne, however, had just returned from The Home Depot. She suggested that I try a “garden claw” which is available in any Super Mercado. I followed her advice and found that it worked even better in those rocky, tropical soils than a trowel! We are grateful to our employees for this nifty tip. From now on, we will use a trowel in sandy soils (such as in Florida) and the garden Anne with the same battle-tested garden claw I brought claw in rocky soils. back from the Super Mercado. Here, she is using the garden claw to negotiate a raise at Scarabs Headquarters!

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