It was May 6, 1985 and I was with a friend and his very young son when we saw this tumblebug with its ball. I quickly fired off a whole roll of film and started to load another. I was very excited, and they, well they were surprised I would take so many pictures. "Is it really that scarce?" they asked.

According to the books, no. But here I am nineteen years later and I have never seen another tumblebug. I sometimes walk in cow pastures to look for them but to no avail. Anyone have advice for how to find these supposedly common insects?

The field guides state that the male and female often tumble the ball along together, but I saw and photographed only the one beetle.

I'm parking the photo in Canthon, but would like to move it to species if we can ID it that far. I can provide enlarged photos of certain features if that would help.

So far the only guide page is the excellent one contributed by Patrick for C. vigilans.