RE:Summer beetle activity

From: Date:  02/12/2008

Hi Belinda (and All), I'm interested in your find of an Onitis alexis. Wondering what characters were used to ID the specimen (male spurs?) and how it was distinguished from O. aygulus? Was it a male or female? From memory, this isn't your first record from the district. Do you think they are well established? Over how wide an area are you finding them? With O. aygulus well established and widespread in the Goulburn Broken, I've been keeping my eye out for possible O.alexis, but haven't found any yet. O. aygulus is well and truly active (late Nov) in parts of the Goulburn Broken, as are O. taurus and E. fulvus. Excitingly, E. pallipes is also active: I've found it at another site in the catchment (that makes 5 localities), all from the hotter, drier parts of the catchment, rather than the high rainfall upper catchment. Also of interest is that as of 1.12.08, some B. bison are still active in our catchment; not many, but if they're still laying eggs, we may be seeing the start of an expansion of seasonal activity for this species. John Feehan had already noticed this around Canberra, so perhaps it's already a widespread phenomenon. Has anyone else noticed B. bison active in Nov?