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SCARABS kd ln rn nv ia ug gw vj ky jr uj fw Occasional Issue Number 43 Print ISSN 1937-8343 Online ISSN 1937-8351 September, 2009 August 1994 in French Guyana WITHIN THIS ISSUE French Guiana .................. 1 by Olivier Décobert New Eurysternus Book ... 7 [email protected] In Past Years XXVI .......... 8 Scarab Crop Circle......... 16 TSI:Tucson ...................... 17 BACK ISSUES Available At These Sites: In the village of Cacao. exploration. The driver dropped me Coleopterists Society In August, 1994, I spent more than www.coleopsoc.org/de- three weeks in French Guyana. off beside the Comté River and I fault.asp?Action=Show_ I went as a backpacker and was continued walking along the road. Resources&ID=Scarabs alone on this trip. I wanted to I tried hitch-hiking but no cars explore the forest and search stopped the first day. I had a jungle University of Nebraska hammock in my backpack and I www-museum.unl.edu/ for insects, especially beetles research/entomology/ but also butterflies - as there are tied it between two trees to spend Scarabs-Newsletter.htm many colorful and wonderful the night. species in that part of the world. EDITORS Of course, I found scarabs in the The second day, a car stopped and Rich Cunningham families Rutelidae, Cetoniidae, brought me to the village of Cacao. [email protected] Scarabaeidae, and Dynastidae. There was forest surrounding the Barney Streit village on all sides. I wanted to stay barneystreit@hotmail. After landing at Rochambeau there and installed my hammock com Airport, I took a taxi to begin my in a “carbet” (a French name for a Rutelidae found in the region of Cacao: Antichira capucina (Fabricius) Chasmodia brunnea (Perty) Epichalcoplethis chameleon (Voet) Cetoniidae (Gymnetis spp.) taken in banana traps near Cacao. Page 2 One of the strange beetles I found at Cacao: Compsus cyanipes (Fabricius). The author with a Morpho caught near Cacao (Morpho achilles?). place to hang your hammock). I to my hammock! I also met some collected in the area during the very friendly people in this lost following two weeks, trying to find village of the jungle. beetles by all means: sometimes using a net, by placing banana and After my two weeks in Cacao, I also dung traps in the forest. traveled to Cayenne on a local minibus, rented a room, and During my stay, I found insects but spent a few days in and around also saw many animals including this little town. I collected insects monkeys, agoutis, turtles, lizards, near Rorota Lake, not far from frogs, and tarantulas. One night, I Cayenne (about 10 km, along the was awakened by a frugivorous bat coast). which was eating my bananas next Page 3 I am resting in my hammock in the “carbet.” A Rutela collected near Cacao. Megasoma actaeon (L.) male, taken at light trap at Cacao. My late friend Pascal caught a tarantula (Avicularia). Pascal is gone, but never forgotten! Flowers on a tall tree. Page 4 Scarabaeidae collected from dung traps found around Cacao or Cayenne. Canthon triangularis (Drury) Deltochilum icarus (Olivier) Oxysternon durantoni Arnaud Oxysternon festivum (L.) male and female. Everywhere, I saw morphos, of the new moon. It was a incredible butterflies, throwing off success for moths and also some blue flashes as they flew! scarabs (Pelidnota). A very big species came to light that night: At the end of my trip, I went Megasoma actaeon! back to Cacao by car with an entomologist friend who worked in Cayenne and whom I met during my first stay at Cacao. We wanted to use a light trap because Page 5 I obtained this specimen of Titanus giganteus Linnaeus (size 15 cm) from a resident of Cacao (the village where I spent the most of my time in August 1994). This species is found in winter so I did not get a chance to collect it. A Pelidnota from Cacao. Acrocinus longimanus (Linnaeus). Euchroma gigantea (Linnaeus). The Comté River, near Cacao. Page 6 A Revision of the Genus Eurysternus Dung Beetles (Scarabaeinae) are EUR 19, airmail delivery EUR 29. recognized and used as one of the principal bioindicators of Order from: ecosystem health and classification. Nadya Dandarova (Ms.) The genus Eurysternus is one of Export Manager the dominant taxa of Scarabaeinae [email protected] in the Neotropical region where they have a key impact on ecosystems. This book will allow for the easy identification of the 53 currently recognized species of this important genus through multilingual identification keys (French, English, Spanish and Portuguese), an extensive collection of illustrations (drawings, scanning electron micrographs and photographs) and color distributional maps. A complete taxonomic treatment of the genus François Génier proudly displaying his revision. and information on collecting methods, habitat and phenology are provided for all species. Data were compiled by the author from over 16,500 specimens studied. Génier, F 2009. Le genre Eurysternus Dalman, 1824 (Scarabaeidae : Scarabaeinae : Oniticellini), revision taxonomique et cles de determination illustrees. ISBN 978-954-642-472-3, 245x170, descriptions, multilingual identification keys, numerous colour and b/w photographs, distribution maps, bibliography, index. In French, identification keys also in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Price EUR 78.00 Europe: surface mail delivery EUR 16, airmail delivery EUR 22; Overseas: surface mail delivery Valerie of Scarabs displaying some of the plates. Page 7 In Past Years - XXVI - 1983 by Henry F. Howden [email protected] In the last week of February, 1983, sat on the edge! What some theater Anne and I took advantage of lovers will do! During the day we the Carleton University “Study both examined types and looked for Break” and booked a Theater Tour material that interested us. The trip to London, England. The tour was uneventful and the weather was included air fare, hotel, breakfast great compared to Ottawa weather. and 20 British pounds for theater tickets. We told everyone that In June we started one of our we needed some culture, but meandering trips; final destination actually it was the least expensive Australia. We flew to Los Angeles way to spend a week working where we were met by Elbert at the British Museum (Natural and Cathy Sleeper and spent the History). We blew our theater afternoon and evening with them. money on a single show staring The next morning we visited with Alec Guinness. He was great, but Art Evans, returning briefly to the narrow seats with little leg the Sleepers before leaving for room rather spoiled the evening. Honolulu at 10 PM. We then flew I noticed a person taller than me on to Auckland, New Zealand, and wondered how he fitted in arriving at 8:30 AM local time. As the seat; I checked and noticed on a previous trip, we were met by that he left the seat folded up and Brenda May and her husband and went directly to their home at Huia. I set a few dung traps near their house and spent much of the day napping. The next day Brenda took us to the D.S.I.R. where we met with the staff, including Robin Craw. I found that he was a believer in the ideas of Leon Croizat, who was a strong believer in “tracks” and land bridges. He definitely did not believe in long-distance dispersal and demeaned everyone that did. Photo 1: Near Hyden, WA. The sign says: “Take care, We had an interesting discussion prevent bush” (many places in WA do!) - the word about this, particularly as I did not “fires” originally painted in red had faded, so it was no agree with Croizat. Several years longer there. Nearby cleared land had to erect snow fencing to prevent the sandy soil from blowing and later I attended a symposium on the forming drifts across the road. subject where a paper by Croizat Page 8 was read, and a British scientist sitting beside me, who had come but translated into the early export over just to attend the meeting, of the worst of British rules and asked “Who is this idiot”? Since regulations to Australia. the meeting was about Croizat, the fact that the visitor had not known For the next two weeks we retraced who he was, made me wonder who much of our previous trip, again was the greater “idiot”. Enough finding Mt. Magnet too dry. At said. We spent one more day at the first some places visited near D.S.I.R., picked up my traps, which Hyden were dry (Photo 1) so we yielded two species of Saphobius, reversed our itinerary and headed and left the next day for Sydney, toward the west coast, then over to Australia. As before, we were met by Geoff Holloway and taken to his home in Engadine, just south of Sydney. There we spent four days, collecting locally, working at the Australian Museum and planning for a later trip to western NSW. On July 4 we left for Perth, WA. A brief stop was made in Adelaide to return some specimens to the South Australian Museum. In Perth, two and one-half time zones from Sydney (one can get confused about time zones in Australia), we were met by James Ridsdill-Smith (CSIRO), who helped us in many ways during our two days in Perth. If you have read previous parts of my ramblings, it is easy to guess that we then met the Carnabys at Photo 2: Sandy area near Yalgoo, WA, with several Wilga. Since our last visit Keith, bolboceratine push-ups in foreground. a stamp collector among other interests, had developed a dislike Coolgardie (too dry), back toward of the rapidly escalating postal the coast and north to Ballidu rates.