Arthur V. Evans

The African Dung Beetle Genera

The dung beetle fauna of Africa is the largest and most diverse in the world and comprises about 44% (101) of the world genera and 37% (2,120) of all species. The African Dung Beetle Genera is the first comprehensive taxonomic account of the African genera and their natural history. This attractive and well produced new volume is authored by members of the Scarab Research Group based at the University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa. The work covers all of the scarabaeine genera on the continent, 90 of which are figured in 36 plates featuring 148 species. A considerable amount of time and effort must have gone into the excellent photography that appears in the book, yet there is no mention as to how the specimens were prepared or photographed. Species selection for the plates was based on the authors’ desire to focus “...on rare, or poorly known genera, or those with a wide range of forms such as Proagoderus, where there is a fantastic array of horn shapes in males”. The logical trade-off here is that fewer examples from better known genera consisting of large numbers of superficially similar species, such as Scarabaeus and Onthophagus, appear in the book. One hundredmaps and phylograms supplement the information given on the distribution and evolutionary relationships among tribes and genera. Additional plates provide summaries of the distribution of individual genera “at a glance”. Maps for individual species-groups are given for the larger genera. The introduction includes a very broad and engaging overview of dung beetles, including brief sections covering classification and global geographical occurrence (with map and table of tribes), taxonomic position and evolution of diet, classification and general appearance, morphology (including detailed line drawings), relationships between taxa (with a phylogenetic tree based on 200 characters in 47 genera), diversity and distribution, evolutionary and geographical origin, specialized biological characteristics, breeding behavior, factors influencing activity, factors influencing local and regional occurrences (accompanied by relief and climatic maps), conservation status, and economic importance. Also included is a continental map of Africa, showing countries and a provincial map of South Africa. The core of the work are the chapters detailing with the tribes Dichotomiini, Coprini, Canthonini, Gymnopleurini, Scarabaeini, Sisyphini, Onitini, Onthophagini, and Oniticellini. Each of these chapters includes information on taxonomy and morphology, diversity and distribution, phylogeny and evolutionary history, geographical origin, and biological and ecological notes. Keys to the tribes and genera are not included in the work, but excellent color plates coupled with detailed morphological and bionomic information should enable users to identify most African scarabaeine genera in their collections with confidence. Readers looking to this work for citations of references leading to previously published species keys will have to look elsewhere. Every chapter concludes with a summary of abbreviated and briefly annotated references cited in the text. Full citations appear in the References section that includes 160 articles. The oldest publication cited is dated 1940, while the newest is 2006. A glossary defines 119 terms that appear in the book, ranging from asl (“above sea level, a reference to altitude”) to vicariance (“the process by which taxa are separated physically, and which leads to new speciation events”). The index is primarily taxonomic in nature and utilizes bold type and italicization to distinguish tribes, valid genera and species, and valid African genera (followed

Illustrated Identification Guide to Adults and Larvae of Northeastern North American Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

Illustrated Identification Guide to Adults and Larvae of Northeastern North American Ground Beetles is a very important contribution to our knowledge of the North American beetle fauna in general and an essential volume for the identification of the continent’s ground and tiger beetles in particular. This handsome and well produced volume is dedicated to Henri Goulet, who Bousquet credits with introducing him to the world of carabids and for the exquisite color plates featured in the book. The book covers the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland (including Labrador), Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Québec, as well as the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Also included is the French overseas department of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. This collection of geographically cohesive, yet seemingly disparate political units spanning three countries is succinctly defined in the book and in this review as “the northeast”, while the speciesgroup taxa are dubbed “the northeastern species”. Bousquet kicks off the work with a very brief overview of carabid biology, followed by a short note on suprageneric classification and a list of subfamilies and tribes recognized by Bousquet as occurring in the northeast. After these comes a list of all 565 northeastern species with subgeneric assignments (when applicable) arranged by tribe. Examples of most of these species were personally examined and verified by the author as being collected within the region. Another 30 or so species are included based on reliable literature records. The note on suprageneric classification appears to be a justification as to why the suprageneric and species lists are presented separately. Still, it would have been useful, especially to non-carabidophiles like myself, to combine these lists into one, even if the stated purpose of the volume is not to establish the still somewhat contentious suprageneric classification of the carabids. The introductory section ends with an alphabetical list of species and their distribution within the political units in the northeast. Each column is tallied to give the total number of carabid species found in each political unit and its percentage of the total northeast fauna. The next section, titled “Generalities”, presents details on adult specimen preparation and examination, morphological structures and terms, and abbreviations used in the key. The author assumes that users of the book will already be familiar with basic carabid morphology, notes several introductory works on the subject, and offers a glossary to specifically define the terms used to describe the character states used in the key. Developing a concise, yet detailed and user-friendly glossary without excessive repetition is a challenging exercise as evidenced in this book by the fact that 34 of the 91 terms included in the glossary simply refer the reader to another entry. Nevertheless, the glossary serves its purpose and is very helpful for navigating the key. To increase the utility of the keys and the generic diagnoses nested therein, the following bionomical information is included: biogeographic categories (indicated as [BC]), habitat requirements [HR], seasonal activity [SA], occurrence (frequency of collection) [OC], dynamic power (dispersal ability) [DP], and geographical divisions (distribution by province/department/state. Each of these categories is fine tuned with further subcategories, such as locality frequence [LF], relative abundance [RA],

Coleotteri Scarabeoidei d'Italia

Coleotteri Scarabeoidei d’Italia is a thoroughly impressive and colorful introduction to Italy’s scarabs (sensu latu) and it the first work to present all of the country’s species in full color. The DVD contains about 3,000 images and covers 398 species and subspecies known to occur in Italy, plus 38 additional species whose presence in the country remains doubtful. The families covered in this work include the Lucanidae, Bolboceratidae, Geotrupidae, Trogidae, Ochodaeidae, Hybosoridae, Glaphyridae, and Scarabaeidae. It also includes a bibliography to the Italian Scarabaeoidea that contains more than 1,300 references, is current up to early 2010, and can be printed as a pdf. The DVD is divided into seven chapters and begins with an introduction to scarabs by Franco Tassi of the Conservazione Natura ed Ecologia Applicata Comitato Parchic-Centro Studi. Tassie creates a foundation for the DVD by providing a brief overview of scarab biology and diversity, and their intersection with human activity. A preface by Giuseppe Carpaneto, Professore associato de Biodiversità animale Università degli Studi “Roma Tre”, Roma, follows. The richly illustrated chapter Gli Scarabaeoidea includes nearly 200 images and offers a broad overview of scarab diversity and biology. Brief paragraphs, photographs, cladograms, and graphs are all used to introduce and depict scarab internal and external morphology, diversity, behavior, cultural significance, pest status, use as human food, and geological history. The higher classification of the Scarabaeoidea is followed by a photographic overview of families and subfamilies worldwide. These topics are followed by additional essays on the diversity of Italian scarabs, species unique to the Italian fauna, and invasive species. The detailed history of scarab study in Italy is chock-full of biographical information on scarabaeologists, past and present, and is illustrated with several wonderful color plates of scarabs from classic monographs. This portion of the work would have been even more informative had it included images of most of the scarab workers mentioned. However, the images of many, but not all, of the Italian workers mentioned are available at the Scarab Workers World Directory www.unl.edu/museum/research/entomology/ workers/geo.htm. The chapter ends with information on scarab habitats, collecting techniques, and conservation. The next three chapters include a systematic checklist of Italian scarabaeoids, Elenco sistematico, that is accompanied by a second window of thumbnail images that are grouped primarily by suprageneric taxa. Each species image is linked to a species page. A second checklist, Elenco alfabetico, is organized by species. Each entry is annotated with its genus and subfamily and is linked directly to its species page. Tavole fotografische offers synoptic thumbnail images grouped by families, subfamilies, tribes, and, occasionally, genera. This section is very handy for quickly sorting through various taxonomic levels to compare and identify specimens and images in hand. Chiavi dicotomiche presents a dichotomous key that contains short, concisely written couplets, each accompanied by informative color images that leave no doubt as to the character state in question. Species identified in the key are only a click away from their species’ page.

Insects–their Natural History and Diversity: with a Photographic Guide to the Insects of Eastern North America

It has always been said that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but after reading Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity I’ve learned that this well-worn idiom isn’t always true. When this book first crossed my desk, to say that I was instantly enamoured would be an under-statement. It was so beautiful, the cover adorned with a stunning jewel-toned dogbane beetle (Chrysochus auratus). I almost didn’t want to crack the binding. However, my curiosity finally got the better of me and I’m glad it did because once I started reading I couldn’t put the book down. Visually stunning, with over 4000 colour photographs of insects in their natural habitats, Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity has the look and feel of a glossy coffee table book while still being full of accurate, well researched information. As its title implies, Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity focuses on the diversity and natural history of common families of northeastern North American insects. The book opens with a brief synopsis of basic insect anatomy and morphology. This is followed by chapters covering the diversity of all insect orders, including all the major families, along with two chapters on non-insect arthropods and methods for observing, collecting and photographing insects. The book’s last 50 pages are dedicated to illustrated keys to order and family as well as a key to the most commonly encountered insect larvae. These keys are designed to facilitate ease of use and therefore emphasize morphological characters visible to the naked eye or easily seen with a hand lens. Also peppered throughout the book are helpful suggestions on where to look for and find various insect orders/families. For example, “Depending on your inclination and the weather, a good place to start looking for assassin bugs would be in your kitchen light fixture. Unless you are much more Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity: With a Photographic Guide to Insects of Eastern North America of black flies is also offered, along with an exhaustive summary of blood feeding host records, and records of black fly diseases and parasites. For most readers, it is likely that the third part of the book, which treats the management of black fly pests, will be the most interesting. I can see this part of the book providing fodder for any number of term papers, research paper introductions, and consulting and government reports. I was surprised, however, to find that the chapter on management (Chapter 8) was largely historical in nature, without a summary of control recommendations. On careful reading, however, I could see the reason for this approach. Oil-based pesticides, DDT, and other chemical controls for black flies have not stood the test of time. The authors summarize the use of the bacterial toxin Bti, but give it only a qualified nod, with the caution that it too might lose its effectiveness over time. The chapter ends in an interesting discussion of repellants, and repellant clothing. The fourth and final part of the book is clearly the section closest to the authors’ own interests. It treats the 254 species of “North American” black flies, thoroughly. The focus is not simply on identification, it is also deeply phylogenetic, and includes a very careful evolutionary justification for each and every level of the classification. This is followed by a superb species by species treatment of the entire fauna. Significantly, there is additional information on the economic significance (if any) of each and every species, adding greatly to the summary in part three of the book. As a non-specialist, I have to admit that the most impressive aspects of the book to me were the illustrations. They begin on page 436 (well before the halfway mark) and they are so masterfully executed that I couldn’t help but come away thinking that there was something deeply beautiful and elegant about black flies, their larvae and pupae, and the fine details of their anatomy. More full-body illustrations of the adults would have been nice, but the overall sameness of the other life stages illustrated convinced me that side-by-side comparisons of the adults might not be all that useful. Maps follow the illustrations, and treat the United States and Canada on a county level, but they do not show Greenland. And, as one might expect in a book of this nature, the reference section and the indices are exhaustive. This is a magnum opus, and a tremendous labour of love. It ranks, in my opinion, right up there with Holldobler and Wilson’s The Ants. Having said that, it seems to me a shame that the book appears to have been presented as a somewhat impenetrable scholarly tome, without a showy slip cover, and with little or no fanfare for the “general readership” to which it was addressed. Don’t be scared off by the size, or the complexity of this book. It is a masterwork, and if any aspect of your interests overlaps with the subject of black fly biology, do consider adding this fine volume to your library.

Book Review Leschen, R. A. B., and R. G. Beutel (editors). 2014. Handbook of Zoology. Arthropoda: Insecta. Part 38. Coleoptera, Beetles. Volume 3. Morphology and Systematics (Phytophaga). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany. 675 pp. Hardcover. ISBN: 978-3-11-027370-0; ISSN 2193-4231. US

This important work, which covers the speciose superfamilies Chrysomeloidea and Curculionoidea, includes the first modern world treatments of the longhorns and weevils. A compilation of 46 manuscripts contributed by 37 authors, this volume is similar in format to the previous two volumes (Beutel and Leschen 2005; Leschen et al. 2010; see Beutel and Leschen 2016). The brief Editor’s preface acknowledges the hard work of the contributing authors. They note the “tireless commitment” of John Lawrence to the entire volume and that the completion of this volume of the Handbook would likely have been impossible without his efforts and that of Rolf Oberprieler who worked on the chrysomeloid and curculionoid chapters, respectively. An alphabetical listing of all Contributors follows the

363.00.

Ecology and Evolution of Dung Beetles is the newest offering in the panoply of authoritative volumes published over nearly half a century that have brought together the latest, in-depth ecological and evolutionary information on dung beetles (see Halffter and Matthews 1966, Halffter and Edmonds 1982, Hanski and Cambefort 1991, and Scholtz et al. 2009). The behaviors, species richness, and abundance of the world’s dung beetle fauna have attracted the attention of early naturalists and modern researchers for more than two thousand years. Dung beetles have a long evolutionary history that extends back nearly 145 million years. This and the fact that there are about 6,000 extant species distributed nearly worldwide make dung beetles an ideal platform from which to launch studies into the ecological and evolutionary processes that generate biodiversity. In their preface, the editors posit that, with the wealth of data that has accrued, dung beetles have become useful models for broad-scale ecological studies that address the most basic issues of community and population ecology, especially as these fields relate to conservation biology. Studies on intrasexual competition and reproductive biology among dung beetles have made significant contributions that have provided validation of Darwin’s theories of sexual selection and advanced our insights into the evolution of parental care. As models, dung beetles, especially the Onthophagini, have become popular research animals in the nascent fields of evolutionary development biology and ecological developmental biology that have been, “for better or worse”, respectively referred to as “evodevo”and“eco-devo.”[Forme,themonicker“evo-devo” always conjures up a possible title of a “mockumentary” that would chronicle the misadventures of an 80’s NewWave music group rather than denoting a field of legitimate scientific endeavor. But I digress.] Therefore, the ultimate aim of this book is “...to provide detailed and focused reviews of the important contributions dung beetles continue to provide in evolutionary and ecological research.” This work is divided into 13 chapters contributed by 20 authors from six countries. The chapters cover various wide-ranging themes, including:

Ecology and Evolution of Dung Beetles

Coleopterists are fortunate indeed that the publishers at Walter de Gruyter have shown such commitment to the continuation of the Handbook for Zoology series. With the creation of a four-volume set within this series that presents the state-of-the-art in beetle morphology and systematics, they have engaged in a daunting scientific challenge, to say the least. Nevertheless, the publishers have risen to the occasion, and have already completed half of the Coleoptera volumes thanks to a crack editorial team, who in turn has enlisted the talents of an incredibly knowledgeable cadre of contributors from around the world. The editors of Volume 2 are truly dedicated craftsmen, for they have masterfully melded 116 individual manuscripts written by 52 contributors from 19 countries into a single, superb volume. When complete, these four volumes are very “...likely to remain the reference for morphological information on the Coleoptera for a long time (Krell 2008).” Volume 2 begins with a brief Editor’s Preface in which the work is dedicated to the memory of Steve Ashe. The editors also note the passing of several other coleopterists who contributed directly or indirectly to Volumes 1 and 2, including Alistair Ramsdale, Robert Roughley, and Hiroyuki Sasaji. They go on to acknowledge (or lament?) that this volume would have been impossible were it not for the “...encyclopedic knowledge of an increasingly smaller circle of outstanding coleopterists...” As with the first volume dealing with Coleoptera in the Handbook of Zoology series (Beutel and Leschen 2005), the editors have followed the classification of Lawrence and Newton (1995). The latest references in Volume 2 are those published in 2008. Four introductory chapters follow, beginning with Changes in classification and list of families and subfamilies (J. F. Lawrence, R. G Beutel, R. A. B. Leschen, and A. Slipinksi). This chapter updates the classification presented in the first volume, most of which involves the elevation or reduction in rank of tribes and subfamilies. The section ends with two new family-group name additions to the Adephaga (Meruidae and Aspidytidae), followed by a complete listing of the families covered in the second volume. For those who can’t wait for the publications of Volumes 3 and 4, a complete family-group name list for all Coleoptera, extinct and extant, was recently published in ZooKeys by Bouchard et al. (2011) and is available on-line at www.pensoft.net. The next chapter, Glossary of Morphological Terms (J. F. Lawrence, R. G. Beutel, R. A. B. Leschen, and A. Slipinski), offers a preliminary attempt to standardize the morphological nomenclature used within the Coleoptera, especially those terms recently introduced in the literature that have yet to appear in textbooks and dictionaries. During the course of editing and writing the chapters for this book, the editors noted that specialists of different families often invoked a frustrating mix of terminology that needed to be reined in under the yoke of homology. As they noted in the Editor’s Preface, “While classifications will change almost on a yearly basis due to new phylogenetic data, morphological terminology is an old calloused dog that is entrenched by tradition with many beetle specialists having their own sets of terms that are not used in other groups.” The glossary consists of terms that