Cameron Highlands Beetle Collection

Odontolabis femoralis female, found at night in the Cameron Highlands.

First of all, I did not have enough time and proper equipment to do a real night collection in the Cameron Highlands, but luckily men invented street lights, so I was able to check the street lights and lights at hotels and houses and was able to find some interesting things. One of the best places for collectors without equipment is the Hotel Ecuatorial as a Japanese friend told me. And he was right, because they have hard white lights all around and in the hotel, which attracts a lot of the night active insects. I only had a few hours to do collecting there, as I was driving there by cab and they stop traffic at 12am.

View on the Ecuatorial Hotel, which is a good place to collect insects at nighttimes.

Still I found many interesting species, such as Curcilionidae, Cerambycidae, Moths and wasps, it was like a treasure hunt, every light offered something new to me. I was mainly looking for Lucanidae, but did not find too many species, mostly females of Odontolabis femoralis and Prosopocoilus astacoides elephus, but a huge male of Odontolabis femoralis, and a male of the ultra rare Aegus dilaticollis endroedyi. I found many many weird and big Moth species, such as Attacus atlas and Urania spec. (?). I found a single male of Oryctes spec. (most probably O. gnu) and a dead female of Chalcosoma caucasus. It was a very interesting night, I did not keep many specimen, as all of them were eaten up by ants, when I proceeded my travels. I heard that this is a big problem, the only thing that helps is fitting boxes and Paradichlorbenzoen, which definitely kills most insects and prevents mould to a certain degree as well. Anyways, I am quite sure, I will go collecting there some day again, especially as I really like the idea of hunting insects instead of buying them somewhere.

Attached some photographs, click on the hyperlink to see it.

 

Hotel Ecuatorial

Weird looking fly

True bug

Yellow Moth

Tree at dusk

Oryctes spec.(????)

Mimic moth

Urania spec. (?), moth

Odontolabis femoralis female

Odontolabis femoralis female

Look at the drivers seat of a bus, wow

Odontolabis femoralis male, pieces of it...

Hotel Ecuatorial

Hotel Ecuatorial

 

Benjamin Harink    

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Stand: 06. November 2007 .

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