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Beetle blog

February 2011
5

Love Bug

Posted by Blaps Feb 14, 2011
Unless you have been hibernating under a rock (like many beetles at this time of year) you will know that today is the most romantic day of the year, St. Valentine’s Day, an opportunity to show that special someone how much you care, to lavish gifts, to make public displays of affection and to perhaps find true love…
In the beetle world, love is everywhere (well, not as we know it, but you know!)
For instance, one of my beetle loves is the soldier beetle, Cantharis rustica, who, rather than wearing its heart on its sleeve, wears it on its pronotum instead! Here is a ‘his and her pair’ from the Museum’s collection – can you make out the heart?
Cantharis rustica web_compressDSC00143.JPG
©Katie Bermingham
These beetles are predatory on other smaller flower-loving insects and can be seen from spring wandering about on umbellifers such as cow parsley.
Also within the Cantharidae family (the soldier beetles – so called for their general black and red smart appearance resembling a soldier’s uniform (use your imagination!) is what is lovingly termed ‘the bonking bug’ or more scientifically Rhagonycha fulva. These beetles have worked hard at their reputation and can be seen in the UK from late June to late August bonking away, in fact they can’t get enough of it! They too can be found in large numbers on umbelliferous plants feeding on pollen and nectar but also predating on other insects.
IC_Rhagonycha_fulva1.JPG

©IronChris

 

 

The Cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus adds weight to the terms ‘love hurts’ or ‘a thirst for love’. The male of the species has a specially adapted penis which ‘spurs’ the female, damaging her internally. This adaptation is thought to act as an ‘anchor’ for the male and also puts the female off mating for a while which confers a competitive advantage to the mating male. However, the female endures, as she is thirsty – what a gal will do for love! These beetles feed on stored pulses which contain no more than 10% water. Without access to an additional water source, the females use the males’ ejaculate to quench their ‘desire’ as it were. The ejaculate makes up 10% of the males’ weight and so is a high energy investment but this is okay because once the deed is done, the females lose interest anyway (isn’t this usually the other way round!)
Callosobruchus_maculatus_penis.jpg
Callosobruchus maculatus penis

©Johanna Rönn

 

 

In the burying beetle, Nicrophorus defodiens all is not fair in love and war. When the male secures the romantic gift of a large decaying carcass for his love to feed on, the resulting offspring from this monogamous pairing will not be able to consume the whole of this plentiful resource. This gives the male an excuse to look for more than one female mate, meaning their coupling produces more surviving offspring than he would by remaining monogamous. This is not good news for the monogamous female, whose reproductive success decreases with the introduction of a rival female, but, she puts up a fight, using her feminine wiles, or behavioural tactics, she interferes with the males’ pheromone emissions and thereby decreases his success at attracting another female. This ensures that she keeps her man (beetle) all to herself!
nicrophorus defodienswebcompressDSC00146.JPG
Nicrophorus defodiens in the Museum's collection looking rather pink!
Max Barclay, head of Coleoptera Collections has this to add about the weevils, which can be seen in all their carnal glory in the Museum's most excellent exhibition Sexual Nature http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/sexual-nature/index.html
"Of course, size isn’t everything, so look no further than tiny weevils for some bizarre mating practices – especially perfecting the clingy boyfriend.
Once the male has a female, he doesn’t let go, he’ll stay on her back for up to a month and mate throughout. The more males she’s been with, the less chance of a single father and, of course, each male wants to pass on their genes, so this is his way of preventing her mating with others. This is known as 'mate guarding'. Mating weevils still go about their daily business while attached, including eating and even flying!"
800px-Lixus_paraplecticus_2_beentree.jpg
Here are an ungainly pair of mating weevils of the genus Lixus, the same genus featured in the Sexual Nature Exhibition

©BeenTree, Poland

 

 

These are just a few examples of the complexities of mating in the coleoptera, that are too numerous to mention here.
Happy St. Valentine’s Day!
XXX
0

Fieldwork in Africa

Posted by Blaps Feb 3, 2011
This week one of our academic visitors Hitoshi Takano shares the trials and tribulations of fieldwork, in one of the most hostile and unforgiving places in the world, Africa. But aside from the hardships of fieldwork it is also a beautiful and rewarding place with nature at its rawest and wildest. And, there are thousands of beetles!
However, there appears to be a distinct lack of any evidence of beetle collecting, but here’s a black and white Colobus monkey. Magombera Forest, Tanzania, just to make up for it – and no, HT didn’t bring it back to the Museum for closer study.
colubus monkeywebcompress.JPG
In HT’s own words: “Did I really spend all that time just standing in the sun wielding a butterfly net or slumped next to a light trap with a bottle of whisky? I also have a total of zero beetle pictures - it seems I stick them into a tube of alcohol before I even get the chance to take a photo. Note to self for the future - more science and beetle photos!” Yes, more beetles please!
Taking part in fieldwork can often highlight the degradation of habitats, or even countries. When HT went on fieldwork to Sierra Leone this was immediately apparent. Sierra Leone is the world’s worst off nation, after nine years of civil war ending in 2000, it is not jus the economy and the peoples that are affected, it is also the natural environment. After a failed attempt to track the pygmy hippo (one of Africa’s many endangered species whose populations are under threat from deforestation and poaching), he tells this story:
“…with an outdated guide to the local mammal fauna, we headed for a locality in ‘impenetrable’ Sierra Leone. We soon understood that this habitat could no longer support a viable population of hippos. After years of civil war, mass deforestation, and farming, the landscape was barren; we couldn’t even pitch our hammocks. Forget hippos, there weren’t even trees, which meant the breaking of the cardinal Ray Mears rule of never sleeping on the ground in the tropics…. But on a positive note, unlike some virgin tropical Africa explorers we didn’t emerge from the jungle with our stomachs in a bag and an unknown virus rioting through our veins! Another of our research sites was more positive, the Outamba-Kilimi National Park had good populations of chimpanzees and elephants, and despite unseasonably long periods of torrential rainfall, there was an abundance of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.”
So, to get back to beetles, here are some photos of fieldwork, this time in Tanzania.
light trapDSC03465webcompress.JPG
Setting up the light trap at dusk, Mwanihana peak, Udzungwa  Mountains
dung bait pitfall trapDSC03522webcompress.JPG
Dung baited pitfall trap (collecting Scarabs which are very good indicators of ecosystem fitness), Nguru  Mountains (and yes, entomologists do get a bit obsessed with poo, though we are most definitely not 'anally retentive'!)
elephant dungDSC03501webcompress.JPG
Here is HT (on the left) employing the sophisticated fieldwork method of grubbing about in elephant dung with some sticks, looking for beetles...
sunsetNgurumountainswebcompress.JPG
All good stories, and hard days' fieldwork, end on a sunset, and perhaps a bottle of whisky!
Nguru Mountains, Tanzania
Next time, let's talk about love...
Blaps

Blaps

Member since: Sep 15, 2009

I'm Beulah Garner, one of the curators of Coleoptera in the Entomology department. The Museum's collection of beetles is housed in 22,000 drawers, holding approximately 9,000,000 specimens. This little collection keeps us quite busy!

View Blaps's profile