All posts tagged: beetle

Palm-Killing Beetle Found on Molokaʻi for First Time, Rediscovered on Maui

Palm-Killing Beetle Found on Molokaʻi for First Time, Rediscovered on Maui

Published by Sam Flores

State officials are surveying parts of Maui and Molokaʻi for evidence of coconut rhinoceros beetles, and residents near detection sites are being asked to check palm trees for signs of damage after the highly invasive pest was discovered on both islands. The suspected detection Tuesday of a male beetle near Kaunakakai Harbor would mark the first time one has been found on Molokaʻi. Based on photographs of the specimen, the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity says it is likely a coconut rhinoceros beetle, and it is being sent to its Plant Pest Control Branch on Oʻahu for official confirmation. Residents on Molokaʻi petitioned the state Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity more than six months ago for better protections from the beetle, which led to the state’s strictest regulations for importing certain products such as mulch. The appearance of a beetle near Kahului Airport on April 1 marks the first official sighting since November 2023 on Maui. The Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity’s Dean Matsukawa said in a statement Wednesday that a single dead adult coconut …

A SoCal beetle that poses as an ant may have answered a key question about evolution

A SoCal beetle that poses as an ant may have answered a key question about evolution

Published by Sam Flores

The showrunner of the Angeles National Forest isn’t a 500-pound black bear or a stealthy mountain lion. It’s a small ant. The velvety tree ant forms a millions-strong “social insect carpet that spans the mountains,” said Joseph Parker, a biology professor and director of the Center for Evolutionary Science at Caltech. Its massive colonies influence how fast plants grow and the size of other species’ populations. That much, scientists have known. Now Parker, whose lab has spent 8 years studying the red-and-black ants, believes they’ve uncovered something that helps answer a key question about evolution. In a paper published in the journal “Cell,” they break down the remarkable ability of one species of rove beetle to live among the typically combative ants. The beetle, Sceptobius lativentris, even smaller than the ant, turns off its own pheromones to go stealth. Then the beetle seeks out an ant — climbing on top of it, clasping its antennae in its jaws and scooping up its pheromones with brush-like legs. It smears the ants’ pheromones, or cuticular hydrocarbons, on …