A couple of Heterorrhina macleayi feeding on sap from a tree. Photo taken by Mark Zambrano (@MarkZambrano in Instagram)

While viewing my Twitter feed, one tweet from @markzambrano caught my attention:

Metallic colored beetles eating tree sap in Lantawan Eco Park, Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte.

From the included link, I just saw this beautiful congregation of such beautiful flower beetles, Heterorrhina (Heterorrhina) macleayi Kirby 1818. These beetles are rather common in the country and are usually abundant during these months. In the forests of Bukidnon where I used to go, in a single swipe of the net, more than a handful of different species of flower beetles (subfamily Cetoniinae, family Scarabaeidae) can be netted.

My thanx to Mark Zambrano for giving me permission to post this one. Follow him in Twitter: @MarkZambrano and Instagram. Mark is a Jounalist/Sports Correspondent/Senior News Anchor for GMA News and Public Affairs.

A small Metapocyrtus sp. eating a chrysanthemum petal along Cebu’s Trancentral Highway

Cebu island is one of the country’s least explored and studied when it comes to Pachyrrhynchini. Despite being mountainous, most of its forests have already been cut as early as during the Spanish colonial period. With the boom in sugar prices in the late 19th century, much of the north have then been denuded to give way to vast sugar estates.

The remaining forests in very small patches in Central Cebu and perhaps at the southern end may still harbor interesting Pachyrrhynchini like this unidentified Metapocyrtus sp. (probably subgenus Trachycyrtus) found at a pile of cut chrysanthemum flowers in the province’s Transcentral Highway.

Dalla Torre and Emden’s Coleopterorum Catalogus and Schultze’s papers only mention quite a few, perhaps less than three species of genus Metapocyrtus and none of Pachyrrynchus. I’ve seen in the holdings of the University of San Carlos biological museum some species including ones that I’ve collected for myself.

Nope, its not a queen ant but a tiger beetle of the genus Tricondyla

With all due respects, but today’s issue of the Manila Bulletin, 30 September 2012, instead of showing a photo of a new species of queen ant, it showed a photo of a tiger beetle of the genus Tricondyla. Check my page for this beautiful beetles.

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.

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.

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.