Beetles

Beetles belong to the large order, Coleoptera, which contains a third of all known insect species in the world with over 300,000 individuals recognized so far. There are 30,000 in North America. The term Coleoptera literally means “sheath-wing” and refers to their hard armored force wings that most peoples have to fly. While able to fly, most beetles only do so to get around to other small vegetation. Rarely do you see them flying through the sky for sustained periods.

Beetles were one of the pioneers of natural selection in the tropics, , study species. He said that if God created every animal in the world, then he sure must have liked beetles! Beetles were also the study species of Fritz Muller, who noticed that there were many species of poisonous beetles whose color patterns looked identical to each other. In fact, what is probably happening is that they are mimicking each other. Thus, a potential predator, only has to learn once that, as an example, bright-red, means “don’t eat”. It’s in fact, a mutualistic relationship for all involved. Today we call this sort of mimicry Mullerian mimicry after our famous beetle naturalist.

On our trip, some of our favorite beetles were the dung beetles which instantly found dung piles. They would take a ball of dung and then roll it away, and bury it for a home for their hatching larvae. We also encountered a vast array of different brightly colored beetles from the rainforests and temperate woodlands.

Dung Beetle.