Coleoptera Fieldwork
Lowlands mostly in coastal areas - for Noteridae, Hydrovatus, Bidessini and all things swampy...
PNG, Madang Town, Cleland Park pool, there you go - very rich in water beetles
PNG, Madang Town, coastal area, again very rich...
Bali, coast at main highway, here you go down towards the streambed...
...and then there is a swampy, very vegetated area full of beetles.
Sumbawa, west coast
Sumbawa. You have to dig a bit, but then there will be beetles
A typical inhabitant of such habitats - a species of Hydrovatus (length of beetles 2-4 mm) which you will find by digging with a kitchen strainer or net and sweeping in the water between plants at the edge of the water
Another typical inhabitant of such habitats - a species of Laccophilus (length of beetles 2-3 mm) which you will find by digging with a kitchen strainer or net and sweeping in the water between plants at the edge of the water. These beetles like to jump around.
Papua: lowlands up to 2600 m — The Exocelina aka Papuadytes thing
Lowland forest locality south of Nabire, Papua: River in flat stretch along road Nabire-Enarotali, KM62
Detail: Riverbank, where we create small waterholes in the gravel to get beetles out of the interstitial, the water-filled space between rough sand and gravel. In existing water holes, we could see specimens swim around already. This is water beetlers paradise.
Same view.
Lowland forest locality south of Nabire, Papua: Fast flowing stream along road Nabire-Enarotali, KM55
Lowland forest locality south of Nabire, Papua: Fast flowing stream along road Nabire-Enarotali, KM55
Same - a small puddle with 100% stagnant water at the edge of that stream. Patiently hiking upstream was rewarded, and these are usually many such habitats if only one dares.
Lowland forest locality south of Nabire, Papua: Gravel bank of slightly larger stream (c. 5 m wide) along road Nabire-Enarotali, KM111. Note the puddles which we produced ourselves by removing rocks and start digging and washing and removing more and more stones and gravel -- beetles quite abundant here.
Lowland forest locality south of Nabire, Papua: Small stream / trickly along road Nabire-Enarotali, KM108. Water filled rock hole hidden under leaf.
Lowland forest locality south of Nabire, Papua: Small stream / trickly along road Nabire-Enarotali, KM108. Water filled rock hole, Copelatus and Exocelina, many Hydrophilidae
Lowland forest locality south of Nabire, Papua: Small stream / trickly along road Nabire-Enarotali, KM108. This view illustrates how steep the site was
Streamside waterholes Arfak Mountains. The small stagnant puddle was dug by removing stones and gravel.
Arfak, puddle in otherwise dry streambed'
Waigeo Mt Nok, puddles in otherwise dry streambed
Waigeo Mt Nok, puddles in otherwise dry streambed
PNG, Madang, lowland stream with puddle - in the shadowy situation, we found Exoeclina as well
PNG, Marawaka area, mid-montane forest, small bays and puddles at the edge with very abundant beetle; with Andrew Kinibel
PNG, forgot where but you get the drift...
Papua: High altitude grassland, above 2600 m up to 4000+
Climbing higher and higher in New Guinea island, you will occasionally find flat valleys with grass and tree ferns and swampy, peaty bottom. If the place is flat enough, there will be countless water bodies, larger and smaller. These contain only few water beetle species - all of them Dytiscidae. The species however differ between places, and they are usually very abundant. High altitude = few species = many specimens.
View of Lake Habbema, note that the lake lies in a vast flat valley.
Lake Habbema. At its egde, there are some areas with shallow water - beetles can be observed there.
Valley floor, there are countless pools and ditches and waterholes.
Peaty bottom of water body.
Detail - in this fine peat, you will see small black beetles swimming around, getting air and then hide in peat again. Best time to collect is at night with lamp, or in sunny situations when you see the beetles play. Try to place a dead insect in water - beetles will come to eat.
There are sandy places sometimes, in the very very shallow water you find lots of small black beetles - shallow as in: depth few millimeters.
Bottom of very fine white sand, again, small black beetles in th every shallow water.
Here and there, you find running water - streams, in the vegetation, you will find NO beetles, but mayfly larvae and maybe bugs.
The kind of diving beetles you find: left, a small black Limbodessus, middle, slightly larger black Limbodessus - there are sometimes 3 species like that, small-medium-bit larger, black or brownis. The big beetle to the right is a Rhantus species, these you will see swimming in larger pools, or collect from vegetation and roots at the edge of all sorts of puddles. For size info - Rhantus is around 1 cm long, see BlackBerry keys to the right.
