Eurhinus cf. adonis on Solidago chilensis | Chaco Province, Argentina

Did anybody think that weevil photograph on the cover of the June 2013 issue of The Coleopterists Bulletin (vol. 67, no. 2) looked familiar? If so, it’s  because you saw it first in my April 28, 2013 post, Giving me the weevil eye! This is Eurhinus cf. adonis (ID courtesy of Charles O’Brien), which I photographed near La Escondida in Chaco Province, Argentina on flowers of Solidago chilensis. This photo reminds me that I need to pay more attention to portrait-style photographs, as landscape oriented photos don’t often fit very well on magazine and journal covers.

Beyond being my first cover for The Coleopterists Bulletin (and I hope not the last), the issue contains a number of papers that I will be studying with interest. These include a paper describing new species of Chrysobothris (Buprestidae) from the West Indies with notes on others, a checklist of longhorned beetles (Cerambycidae) from Montana, and the synonymization of Megacyllene comanchei under M. angulifera—all by Mike Ivie and colleagues (I did have the privilege of reviewing the Chrysobothris paper, and my Megacyllene “comanchei“—now M. angulifera—specimens were among those examined). Also of interest to me is a paper about wood-boring beetle emergence (including Buprestidae and Cerambycidae) from ponderosa pines killed by mountain pine beetle and fire in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Finally, Brett Ratcliffe has included a primer on best writing and curatorial practices for describing a new species of beetle—as a somewhat but not highly practiced alpha taxonomist, this should be an interesting read for me that will hopefully give me a chance to correct any nascent bad habits that I may be developing. Scarabaeologists and weevil specialists should be equally pleased with this issue, with a half-dozen or more papers in each group filling most of the remaining pages.

Copyright © Ted C. MacRae