Biology of Acrocinus longimanus

One of my best purchases was a thousand specimens of the magnificent woodcutter beetles colloquially known as the Cayenne Harlequin. This is a beautiful long-whiskered beetle of mouse-gray color with pink and brown streaks.
I was helped in this fishing case. Going inland to the right bank of the river, I decided to hunt in the woodlands, where precious woods and high-grade rubber were extracted.
When I was nearing the end of my trip, the foreman, learning that I was an entomologist, asked me to find out which insect was causing great damage to the local forests.
When I went with him, I saw a patch of forest where at least ten percent of the trees were damaged and slowly dying.
These trees looked strange. In many places there were extremely neat and regular cuts in the bark, as if a punch had been used. Where the bark had been stripped, little circles stood out on the sapwood. In the center of each such circle was a hole, and through these holes crawled out... Who would you think? Harlequin beetles! It was their job. I saw the beetle push out a circle of bark as it climbed out. Nearby, on the ground near trees that had been attacked by pests, there were many such circles lying around.
Before turning into a pupa, the larva chews through the bark so that the circle barely holds and gives way to the first push of the beetle, when it is strong enough.
This harlequin maneuver was spied by a local woodpecker, a fabulously beautiful bird. The woodpecker climbs a tree and listens carefully to the noise that is the signal for the harlequin to fly out; at the moment when the beetle pushes out the circle and drops it on the ground, the woodpecker, perched just above the circle, stretches out its neck, grabs the prey and flies away to eat on the loose.
I watched a lot of interesting scenes, fell in love with a magnificent beetle, and decided to bring a team of woodcutters here to cut down two of the most magnificent trees, already slightly damaged by the harlequin. The woodcutters sawed the trunks into pieces, three meters each, and loaded them into trolleys. Then the trunks were loaded onto a barge, and a steam launch took her in tow and brought her to Kourou. Here roundwood was laid out in my spacious yard. For the sake of easy observation, I set the roundwood upright and, I must admit, acted much like a woodpecker. Every morning I went down to the courtyard and listened for a long time, trying to determine where the Harlequins were going to come from. When I found this spot, I used tweezers to remove the circle even before the beetle pushed it out.
In this way I succeeded, as I have already said, in obtaining a thousand specimens of these delightful long-whiskered beetles, all of them perfectly intact, for I caught them before they had time to damage their elytra or their long whiskers by crawling among the branches.
(Eugene le Cartoon "My Butterfly Hunt")

Papis, Thank You. That's something... A cult creation, and so little is known...

  
(Eugene le Cartoon "My Butterfly Hunt")

I wonder if this book is available in electronic form? I searched, but without success.

Eugene le Cartoon "My Butterfly Hunt"

Oh, the memories came flooding back! This wonderful book was one of the first I read as a child. It was thanks to her that I actually became interested in entomology.

I have this book in Word. I scanned it myself and made the rules. There was an idea to combine with Aksakov, Nabokov together and call it "My butterfly hunt". I even printed out one copy and took it to the publisher to find out the approximate cost of publishing this book. I came back a month later, but the publishing house was gone. Together with my book

How to combine them?

Aksakov and Nabokov have cool pieces ("Notes from Student Life" by Aksakov, "The Gift" and some freaky stories by Nabokov) about collecting butterflies.

Here, by the way, is a pair of Harlequins lying in the desiccator

Um... The Gift seems to have only one chapter about butterflies. I'm not sure it's correct to remove a chapter from the novel.

I agree. There are other pieces in Terra incognita and I've seen them somewhere else in my memories. I did not make any gestures, but made a compilation for myself. Moreover, recently, there was a kind of scandal. My son threatened to burn the last book of Nabokov's father, which has not yet seen the light of day. I think he wanted money.

These trees looked strange. In many places there were extremely neat and regular cuts in the bark, as if a punch had been used. Where the bark had been stripped, little circles stood out on the sapwood. In the center of each such circle was a hole, and through these holes crawled out... Who would you think? Harlequin beetles! It was their job. I saw the beetle push out a circle of bark as it climbed out. Nearby, on the ground near trees that had been attacked by pests, there were many such circles lying around.
Before turning into a pupa, the larva chews through the bark so that the circle barely holds and gives way to the first push of the beetle, when it is strong enough.

I understand that only a larva can travel through the passages in the trees?
Or adult insects also somehow manage to curl their legs....
Or is the moment of going outside the first and last stay in the thickness of the trunk?......????

This harlequin maneuver was spied by a local woodpecker, a fabulously beautiful bird. The woodpecker climbs a tree and listens carefully to the noise that is the signal for the harlequin to fly out; at the moment when the beetle pushes out the circle and drops it on the ground, the woodpecker, perched just above the circle, stretches out its neck, grabs the prey and flies away to eat on the loose.
(Eugene le Cartoon "My Butterfly Hunt")

Update of the previous message. I want to understand whether large barbel species are capable of such a behavioral response as hiding in the thickness of the trunk in the first minutes of life. Theoretically, at this time, their size can allow them to return to their exit points, the threat of attack by insectivorous birds is estimated for thousands of years ... + ... entomologists...
Maybe someone has seen something similar in our large species...

I heard that Kallipogon is still running around the inner passages of the tree for about a week after leaving.

The book of Eugene Strau is considered the first and unique among the books written
by professional catchers.This book is also the most accurate
technical description of commercial insect harvesting in the last hundred years.
I've read this book dozens of times since the mid-70s.
For more than five years, I have had the text of this book reprinted manually from the original in Word and Excel. I have specially purchased all the copies of insects listed in the text and tables of his wonderful book.
I invited a photographer and made copies of the old tables and several new ones from the received photos.At the end of the work, it turned out to be a cool, almost reprint
edition.Unfortunately, it is impossible for this publication to see the shelves
of bookstores due to the chord of obtaining copyrights and their cost.
But for all the great advantages of this book, we must not forget that Eugene is the author of hundreds of articles on beetles including ground beetles of the genus carabus and monographs such
as his wonderful two-volume work on the morphids of America.

I wonder if this book is available in electronic form? I've searched, but to no avail.

http://ohba.ru/index.php - internet VERSION OF THE book

  http://ohba.ru/index.php - online version of the book

Thank you very much, Boris!

...So little is known,but how it contributes to enlightenment...
Thank you all! For me personally, the topic has lost its relevance,as I found answers
to most of my questions ...

Briefly about the found.... Acrocinus longimanus
Wide distribution: from Yu.Mexico to Northern Argentina - neotropical
dense forests.There are variations in color from bright to muted tones...
It develops on the dead wood of various trees.Usually of the mulberry and kutrovy families (Bagassa / wood-tatazhuba/, Ficus, Couma...).In the sapwood part of the trunk.
Development from 5.5 months to a year, depending on favorable conditions...
They are most active in March and September(Fr.Guiana). During the day - from the twilight hours to the morning hours.
The following subjects attracted the attention of researchers: sexual behavior of harlequins;
symbiotic relationships with pseudoscorpions Cordylochernes,
which live on beetles and feed on parasitic mites;the ability
of larvae to communicate by sound in colonized tree trunks...

This post was edited by universal - 02/13/2009 17: 35

It remains to add that false scorpions live in the beetle under the elytra.

Absolutely, and graze, often, huge colonies of ticks...

And who knows if the red pigment on his elytra fades in a relatively short period of time - a year and a half, even if stored in the dark?

And who knows if the red pigment on his elytra fades in a relatively short period of time - a year and a half, even if stored in the dark?

No, it doesn't fade. I have a glass-enclosed box with them for the 3rd year hanging on the wall-the beetles are as fresh as ever. The main thing is that direct sunlight does not fall, and such conditions in a shaded room with windows not on the sunny side, away from the windows. And if you also use curtains made of thick fabric that protect the box, then the brightness of the color will be guaranteed for many, many years.

And what is the price of this barbel? and where can I buy it?

And what is the price of this barbel? and where can I buy it?

Approx. that's it: http://www.insect-sale.com/shop/store.asp?...idae&Code=Cer45
Request form: Acrocinus longimanus price on Yandex.
Ec... at one time, the "bird" (old) could be bought for 100 rubles, but those days are gone.

Approx. that's it: http://www.insect-sale.com/shop/store.asp?...idae&Code=Cer45
Request form: Acrocinus longimanus price on Yandex.
Ec... at one time, the "bird" (old) could be bought for 100 rubles, but those days are gone.

Well, in those years when the "bird" was old, a hundred rubles is like a thousand today.

In insect-sale, you can order for an amount starting from 100 green (if at all possible, they persistently do not respond to something) plus overhead costs.

The easiest and fastest way is to contact Dmitry Sobanin sob@ns.comch.ru or (or better yet, both mailboxes at once) insectsu@insect-supply.com He usually has acrocinus. There is also a minimum order (like 100 euros was), but this is if by mail. And taking into account that he, like you, is registered for the congress, I think that everything is much simpler.

Well, in those years when the "bird" was old, a hundred rubles is like a thousand today.

In insect-sale, you can order for an amount starting from 100 green (if at all possible, they persistently do not respond to something) plus overhead costs.

The easiest and fastest way is to contact Dmitry Sobanin sob@ns.comch.ru or (or better yet, both mailboxes at once) insectsu@insect-supply.com He usually has acrocinus. There is also a minimum order (like 100 euros was), but this is if by mail. And taking into account that he, like you, is registered for the congress, I think that everything is much simpler.

Thank you, it's actually not necessary for me (I just answered the person).
And I really feel sorry for the old" bird". The new one is nothing compared to it.

I have a small Acrocinus longimanus est

I have a small Acrocinus longimanus

What's the price?

Five hundred rubles