Chalcosoma atlas LINNAEUS 1758 sighted at a Zamboanga City street

I was walking along a street in Zamboanga City and when I was about to enter the hotel premises which was near the airport, I saw this beautiful and large Chalcosoma atlas LINNAEUS 1758 frantically trying to get up as it fell and was lying on the ground. Helpless. I reached for it then transferred to this wooden post.

No, it wasn’t killed for my collection but left it there.

In the latest edition of the Les Cahiers Magellanes, my entomologist friend, Eduard Vives’s latest article on new and notable species of Philippine Cerambycidae has just been published. Interestingly, it includes one from my collection which I sent to him for study.

Pseudodoliops ilocanus VIVES 2011 was collected in northern Ilocos during a collection trip I made in June 2005. It is one of the very few in the genus and, I think, there are still many to be discovered in the future.

The tiger beetle species named after me

Calomera cabigasi CASSOLA 2011 brings to five species under the genus Calomera to occur in the Philippines with three all found in Mindanao, including this new species. According to the author, it is similar to C. decemguttata from Sulawesi but smaller and with darker elytra, among other unique characters.

A copy of the paper can be downloaded here.

Just some of my Carabid specimens in my collection

Up until now, my Carabidae specimens in my collection, all collected in the Philippines, are still unidentified. I really don’t have the resources, or necessary references for these. I’m not also sure about the tribes and genera. It’s just so diverse. With the lack of references, it really is quite difficult.

Can someone help?

The new Metapocyrtus species from Mindanao reproduced from the paper

What I know is that the last time a new species of Metapocyrtus and even with Pachyrhynchini in general was described by Schultze in 1934. This can also be confirmed in Yap 2008.

Now, Yoshitake has described Metapocyrtus sakaii from Surigao del Sur, Mindanao from the private collection of Kaoru Sakai. He says that the said species is different from its allied species by the presence of the conical projection on the ventral part of the rostrum for both sexes. The holotype is deposited in the NIAES type collection.

Looking at my beetle photo RAW files that I’ve taken months ago, I processed seven which I then updated in this site. All are Scarabaeidae of which four are Cetoniinae, one Valginae and two Melolonthinae. There are still many photos to be processed but due to time constraints and difficulty of doing it, will do this some other time.

I have now 1,266 photos in this site.

Plectrone negricola KRIKKEN 1978

Plectrone sp.

Euglypta (Astraea) boudanti ARNAUD 1992

Taeniodera tricolor samarensis SAKAI 1996

Dasyvalgus sp.

Melolonthinae sp.

Melolonthinae sp.

The new paper on the Hawaiian, Oriental, Australasian and Japanese Parandrinae

The subfamily Parandrinae is one of the most challenging Cerambycidae groups when it comes to identification. Prior to the work of Santos-Silva, Heffern and Matsuda, Philippine Parandrinae was lumped under a single species: Parandra janus BATES 1875.

Last July 2010, Insecta Mundi finally published the long awaited paper of the three authors: Revision of Hawaiian, Australasian, Oriental, and Japanese Parandrinae (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) wherein they took on the gargantuan task of putting order into this very complex group. I was asked to contribute some specimens from my collection plus those from my friend Eduard Vives. The result? Seven new species of Parandrinae for the Philippines alone!

Check out my updated Parandrinae checklist. Now, I’m in the process of identifying the rest of my specimens in my collection.

Metalloleptura prasina HELLER 1913

It’s quite mind boggling that the Philippines, when compared with Borneo, mainland Southeast Asia and Taiwan has a dismal record number of longhorns from the subfamily Lepturinae. To date, two tribes are represented only with a total of eight species: Lepturini, with seven species from six genera and one species of Rhamnusiini as outlined in the checklist.

This is in light of the high endemicity levels in the country with many interesting islands. In my collection alone, all from Mindanao, I only have five species of which one, Heffernia filipina VIVES 2005 (tribe Rhamnusiini) is a new species. These were all high altitude cerambycids, which I consider all Lepturinae to be.

In the case of Palawan, I’m not so sure if there are listed Lepturinae species either endemic or not and this is quite a pity that this island is a part of Sundaland, an extension of the Bornean fauna where there are lots of these.

Maybe a good explanation is this: there is a lack of serious collecting in the higher elevations of the country. Palawan may hold several new species or records. Mindanao and Luzon should also be sampled as well as the major islands in between. If this is done, perhaps, we can push the number higher.

Pachyrhynchus samarensis (?) on tree bark

Trail leading to the falls

I was invited by my friend, Raegan, the world authority on Philippine Odonata to a brief trip to Epol Waterfalls in Marilog District, Davao City a few weeks ago. A two hour bus ride from the city, the area is already disturbed with secondary stands of forest. It is also a popular place for day trippers visiting the cascade.

I’m not so hopeful of getting new species on the families that I collect but it is always a good thing to go out with like minded persons and best of all, there was no competition as he was concentrating only on Odonata while I focus on Coleoptera. Of course, having been assigned in Davao City for a total of two years before, I’ve been in the area and, more or less, know what to find.

Metapocyrtus sp.

I was able to collect two species of Metapocyrtus (subgenus Metapocyrtus and subgenus Trachycyrtus) but what surprised me most was the presence of Pachyrhynchus (probably samarensis) all found on tree bark.

There were three species of tiger beetles, Cicindelidae: 2 species of Therates and one Neocollyris. Curiously, even with the presence of streams in shaded areas, there were no Thopeutica.

I only saw one small Melolonthinae but it flew away. One longhorn, Cerambycidae, Apomecycini was collected. No buprestids.

AIF #7 is here in Salagubang.net

Beetles. I’ve been amazed at these marvelous and interesting insects, that, though the biggest insect order, and for a tropical country, here in the Philippines, is often overlooked.

For the 7th edition of An Inordinate Fondness blog carnival, which salagubang.net is hosting, let’s focus on the beautiful and interesting species that I’ve found in several blogs.

Cycnotrchelus sp., male by KURT

Kurt of Malaysia has very interesting giraffe beetle (Cycnotrchelus sp.) images. I’ve only seen a few species here in the field but the macro photographer was even able to photograph a female building its nest!

Calosoma scrutator by ALEX WILD

Rhopalapion longirostre by ALEX WILD

Alex Wild a.k.a. Myrmecos had an encounter with the fiery searcher, Calosoma scrutator that, according to him, is a stinker.

In the same blog, he has another beautiful beetle shot, this time, its the Hollyhock weevil, Rhopalapion longirostre laying an egg on a flower bud.

Lycus arizonensis by DAVE STONE

Dave Stone presents us with a lycid, Lycus arizonensis which we learn to be diurnal pollen feeders found in Arizona and Mexico.

Rose curculio by ADRIAN THYSSE

Lots of weevils in this post! Here’s another one by Adrian Thysse with his rose curculio with his interesting account of the beetle’s playing dead, a defensive mechanism.

Tiger beetles by STEVE WILLSON

Shh… there’s a couple having sex there. Steve Willson brings us an (almost) blow by blow account of tiger beetles mating. But more than that, he’s a keen observer of beetle behavior that is recounted in his post.

European cockchafers by CATA

A European cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha) spreading its wings to fly. This photo is one of four at the blog.

Buprestis rufipes by TED MACRAE

A really beautiful jewel beetle, Ted MacRae tells us the story behind his photograph of Buprestis rufipes that a blog reader sent him.

Cicindela punctulata by AMBER COAKLEY

Amber Coakley has a fascinating encounter with a Cicindela punctulata as she was trying out her new macro lens. Check out her post for more images of this beetle.

Onthophagus hopfneri by MARGARETHE BRUMMERMANN

Hey, these might not be the cutest but this group, dung beetles, are one of the more fascinating. For Margarethe, they actually saved her life.

Buprestis lineata by JSK

JSK posts about Buprestis lineata and how it is camouflaged in its surroundings.

A beautiful Alcidodes sp. on its foodplant

And of course, to finish this post, is my own, “Alcidodes sp. in the wilds of Bohol” a short account of seeing a weevil from this genus.

Thanx to Ted MacRae for this opportunity as well as pointing me out to additional links for this blog carnival.