Rain Beetle Season 2016-2017

I'll be starting up this year's rain beetle thread soon, but first, it occurred to me today that I failed to report a pretty remarkable find back on May 20th of this year. I was dealing with a leaky pipe in the crawlspace under my house when I spotted a fresh emergence hole about 10 feet from where the water was dripping. The hole was larger than the Pleocoma exit holes I'm used to seeing in the yard. Since my house is on a hill, there is a noticeable change in elevation from front to back. Directly downhill from the exit hole, I found a dead but still fresh and pliable female Pleocoma staff. This is only the second female I've found in my yard. I can only surmise that the dripping water and the increased humidity under my house brought her to the surface.

I just got back from spending 5 days ( 3/4/2017 to 3/9/2017 ) in the Kennedy Meadows Area in search of Pleocoma rubiginosa rubiginosa and I was not disappointed ! My good friend Garin Woo and his sister joined me the first day and we collected a handful each at sunset using Black lite traps and nets. The next day they had left and a major Blizzard hit me , dropping over a foot of fresh snow. I was off the pavement on a dirt road so, I stayed put and waited 2 days for the snow to melt and the Pleocoma to fly . 6 degrees the second night in the Blizzard and a balmy 22 degrees the third night with clearing skies .Finally the temps soared upward into the 70's and the Beetles started to Fly in Numbers ! So the 4th and 5th night I was able to collect an excellent / large series of beautiful freshly hatched male Pleocoma ! And as a Bonus Prize I found a Female Pleocoma rubiginosa rubiginosa on the last Night ! Setting her right in the lip of my net I was able to collect 6 Males who flew right in it ! Then the flights stopped as quickly as they began , with the main flight being 15 minutes in duration and then that was it . On the way home to Lake Tahoe my rig died and I had to have three different tow trucks work to get me and my Ford Expedition home ! That took Two extra days as the one Tow truck also had Mechanical problems half way home . It was still a great trip and the motor issue was fixed by my main mechanic in a half day, putting me back on the road ! Thank God for my Premium AAA Card and excellent Tow Truck operators ! These folks literally keep America Rolling ! The Male's length sizes ranged from 20mm to 30 mm and the Female was 22mm in length ( using stainless steel calipers ) . These are the last Pleocoma to fly until next Fall ! Cheers and good Hunting to All ! Cheers ! Gene St. Denis Sierra Nevada Research

Last weeks storm provided a Very Large Flight of Male Pleocoma punticollis males for my Friends Garin and Ted in Southern California during the rain at sun down to sun rise .This was just south of L.A.Co. in Orange Co. The Mercury Vapor Light was the Ticket to Draw the Lakes in and the Black Lites was the getters ! Cheers ! Gene St. Denis Sierra Nevada Research

In the storms before this storm and in a top secret " L. A . site ( two weeks ago ) My friends Garin , Dennis , and Ted headed out received a nice series of males with Blacklites . Walking around after the 6 to 7 am male flights ,they also collected 4 Female Pleocoma bicolor Females on the ground with males !! Cheers ! Gene St. Denis Sierra Nevada Research

The last 3 days ,I drove down from lake Tahoe to the Wrightwood area roads and back thru rain and snow storms . Meeting up with Mr.Garin Woo , we set out our Home made Black lights and Mercury Vapor lite in high hopes of getting some hard to get Pleocoma octopagina Robertson 1970 male Rain Beetles . And we were not disappointed !! The rain flights started at 5 am and were intermittent until 6 am and then became steady until 7am and ended. Some were seen still flying around in the growing morning sunlite. We received a very nice series of Flying Large Newly Hatched Male Pleocoma octopagina . They come out in limited numbers and were quite Large and robust this year . This was even in a completely and totally Burned out area ....." Truly Toasted ". There is strong evidence to me that the majority of this area's Bush's ( highly resistant somewhat to fire ) are still alive under ground and can provide food for the Pleocoma grubs . I have have photo evidence that in adjacent past fires we have clear regrowth coming out of Completely burned terrain / Bushs . The laminae are extremely Thick and robust with their prominent " 8 fan segments " . They are very large ,adgil ,and strong flyers for Pleocoma males and they came in to Garin's Mercury Vapor lite the strongest . I spent some time looking for females to no avail . Cheers ! Gene St. Denis Sierra Nevada Research

Had one P. puncticollis this morning at 5:45am under white lights at Dos Picos County Park in Ramona. It is the second significant rainfall event in Ramona of the season, with the first being 0.43 inches on Nov 21 and this event totaling 0.33 since yesterday afternoon. I had not checked this spot during the first storm.

Jay Keller,
San Diego

I was in the Back country at 10,000 feet south of Sonora Pass on the ridge above and looking down at Emma lake after the sun went down ( I was camping and hiking on the ridge to Anna Lake) and a Very nice Pleocoma male beetle flew right over my head as I drank a steaming cup of Hot Chocolate . Pleocoma Something in a new area in California . GST

Good Day Pleocoma Enthusiasts!

Early morning, November 21, 2016 I briefly visited a few areas of the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, San Diego County, where I observed five specimens of Pleocoma puncticollis and a single P. australis. Conditions were the first "soaking" rainfall of the season locally, of which the area received nearly 1.5 inches of total rainfall during the event, about half of which (0.75 inches) occurred prior to the time of discovery. The observations occurred between 5:55am and 6:15 am, right at the start of civil twilight when cloud cover is taken into consideration.

I arrived at Lake Cuyamaca at 4:45am and found no beetles under the lights of the Cuyamaca Store. I set up my black light nearby and also had zero beetles appear by 5:45 am when I decided to tear down and move. Dejectedly, I wondered about whether I had missed the flight during one of the small rain events in October where a trace to 0.25 inches were registered. Just south of the lake I noticed that the kiosk to Paso Picacho Campground (4,872 feet elevation) was illuminated with white lights, so I stopped and found four P. puncticollis there. Several miles south along Rte 79 I found the same conditions at the entrance to Green Valley (3,938 feet elevation), and found a single puncticollis and a single australis there. Identifications are based primarily on the color of the hairs, with puncticollis being mostly black with a slight rusty tinge, and australis being noticeably rusty-yellow.

What is interesting about these observations is that puncticollis is regarded as a lower elevation species, while australis is said to be a higher elevation species, based on the McPeak paper that can be viewed here:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwj0s7ONm8LQAhVElVQKHUfRB-wQFgghMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sdnhm.org%2Fdownload_file%2Fview%2F1577%2F654&usg=AFQjCNEIEbfK9mtCsUDa7WYUsY4B3Ox-7w&sig2=uQxUPr-tST0yENMxWlFQjw&bvm=bv.139782543,d.cGw&cad=rja

Specimens can be viewed at the iNaturalist links below, some of which were also recorded in Bugguide:

Green Valley puncticollis:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4613305

Green Valley australis:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4613304

Paso Picacho puncticollis (one of four):
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4630754

I collected all six specimens and returned home with them alive, of which three passed away within two days while the other three persist at the time of this post. What has struck me repeatedly while observing the two Green Valley specimens together in hand is that I cannot reliably distinguish the two based on morphological characters or behavior, other than the clear difference in the coloration of the hairs. I began to speculate whether australis and puncticollis are, in fact, different species. Conducting some additional research, I discovered that "Mr. Pleocoma" Frank Hovore had considered these two (along with P. bicolor) to represent a single species of differing color morphs, as is indicated in the paper linked below.
http://museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/Newsletter/Scarabs%2055.pdf

I believe I would concur that the specific distinction between at least puncticollis and australis is tenuous at best (I have no experience with bicolor), and would propose that the two are one in the same species. One theory I maintain that may describe the hair color difference is host plant preference between specimens, which often will contribute to color differences among various other organisms. It is difficult to ascertain this possibility with confidence since the two "species" seem to have a fairly broad range of host plants, making further analysis on this theory extremely difficult.

Additional notes:
- The four specimens from Paso Picacho are being kept in a large plastic jar with a screw top at room temperature. When opening the jar, inside it is noticeable that a fair amount of heat is being generated by the specimens.
- The australis specimen is being kept in a dry container, and when flipped on its back, it opens its wings to right itself. On one of these events two days after collection, I grabbed the open elytron and noticed that a considerable amount of moisture was being preserved underneath, as it was obvious to the touch.
-I returned this morning, 11-24-16 to the same areas at the same time to determine of the species was still active following more than two days of dry conditions, and found no specimens. I also checked areas of the Laguna Mountains a number of miles to the east and found no specimens. I'll attempt to check again this coming weekend when it is forecast to rain again.

I look forward to the comments of others.

Thanks,

Jay Keller,
San Diego

You guys are lucky in getting to go and catch these cold weather wonders. I want to go out, but this time of year is were my jib is the most busiest. Once January rolls in, maybe I can go out with Gene and collect some of the northern locals. Would love to get some rubiginosa and some of the others.

This Mid-October I headed down to Pine Grove and Pioneer and collected some male Pleocoma fimbriata under Lites . Cheers ! Gene St. Denis Sierra Nevada Research

Mike Seth and I headed out last week and collected and Split 50/50 ,a very nice series for each of us of male Pleocoma hirticollis East of Clear Lake in the Hills around 3000 feet with Black lite s for predawn flights for two days. Cheers ! Gene St. Denis Sierra Nevada Research

Aloha all! I'm an entomology student doing some research on P. behrensi. I was wondering if there are records of earliest/latest emergence specifically for P. behrensi, but I'd be interested in finding out that information for any of the other Pleocoma species as well. Thanks for any pointers!

I headed up north to Dead Horse summit on Highway 89 in a radical wind and rain storm October 14th and 15th 2016 . In the howling darkness south of Susanville on Highway 395 , 5 semi-tractor trailer rigs were blown over and the 5th one was right in front of me. The wind not only tipped the big rig over it lifted the Whole rig Over the highway fence and put it 40 feet from the road. Amazingly the driver was OK after crawling out and he had me call 911 for him. At times I would stop several times and wait for the gusts to pass , making the speed limit was not possible . I then continued way north past Susanville to 8 miles south of Dead horse summit and set out my home made black lite traps the next two nights and waited in the Pouring rain and howling winds. I was not disappointed ! The traps received a very nice series of males , every trap had 3 to 5 males in it. During the days I walked the Forrest service dirt roads in the immediate areas and located many more dead and dying , males from the flood conditions, as well as some still flying until Noon. It appears that the males will fly until out of energy once activated that DAY. They were not flying for several days at day break for 30 minutes at a time , as other Pleocoma do. This would explain why they are hard to find Flying ! And , I Found a Prize !! A Gorgeous female Pleocoma shastensis was just emerged and had a dirt lid on her head like a trap door spider waiting in her hole ! Two males were on the ground headed her way . Many males had been driven over by other trucks on the roads in the immediate area and I have a couple handfuls to glue and repair this winter. Cheers ! Gene St. Denis Sierra Nevada Research

Gene St. Denis and I ran into a small flight of this species in Oregon House, CA yesterday evening.

I had my first flight of Pleocoma staff here on the Ridge above Chico, CA this morning. We had nearly 3 inches of rain yesterday so that got them stirred up.

Anyone else having any luck with rain beetles?