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The function of secondary sexual characters in two species of Dynastidae (Coleoptera)

1944; Smithsonian Institution; Volume: 29; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5962/p.203566

0044-507X

William Beebe,

Coleoptera Taxonomy and Distribution

These notes have to do with two species of dynastids, Megasoma elephas Fabr., 1775, and Strategics aloeus Linnaeus, 1758.The Venezuelan name for these beetles is Tornador, the borer.Another name is Congarocho, and in the Andes they are known as Bobute.These so-called elephant beetles were observed and collected at Caripito, northeastern Venezuela, in the course of the Forty-third Expedition of the Department of Tropical Research of the New York Zoological Society, during a period of seven months, from February to September, 1942.The photographs, both stills and motionpictures, were taken by Miss Jocelyn Crane, Research Zoologist on the staff of the department.Only once did I find the big Megasoma and the smaller Strategus under normal conditions.On March 18 a female of the latter was observed crawling up the trunk of a small jungle tree, and a few days later two male elephas were discovered resting beneath an overhanging branch, on a halfrotten log, quite hidden from view.On March 20 I found a female Strategus in a spider web of unusual strength and size, the large rufous-bodied owner frantically wrapping up the struggling beetle.On the