Frisky beetles find love in most unusual places

PARK rangers, dressed in fluoro vests, are being swamped by male jewel beetles and the reason is a little questionable.

beetles

WHEN it comes to procreation, Mother Nature ensured every species was born with instincts on how to find the opposite sex.

However this genetic dating signal may need to be updated on one particular creature after they were caught trying to copulate with a variety of fluoro orange safety equipment in WA’s Mid-West.

Rangers working in Kalbarri National Park, which is about 600km from Perth, recently came under attack from these frisky male jewel beetles who mistook their fluoro vests for their female mates.

Not only did the overly-amorous beetles get up-close and personal with the said clothing, they also took a liking to vehicle indicators and witches hats.

And it is not the first time this protected insect has made such a mistake (awkies!).

Back in the 1980s the beetles began humping discarded beer bottles in droves, believing they had found their perfect match. The unusual mating practice was observed by two scientists, Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz’s, who wrote a paper that led them to win the 2011 Ig Nobel prize in Biology.

Anthony Desmond from the WA Department of Parks and Wildlife, whose team made the latest discovery, told news.com.au they were hoping to carry out a new study of their own in a bid to find out what exactly turned these creatures on.

“With other beetles I have found particular colours or variations of colours makes a difference,” he explained. “In the published article (by Gwynne and Rentz) they noted that a wine bottle that was a slightly different orange, wasn’t as attractive (to the beetles).

“So, the idea we have is to put out a range of different items in that range of colour frequency and just see is it really the colour or is it something about the way the light reflects.

“The other thing the original guys made some guesses at, was that the little bumps at the bottom of the old stubbies used to resemble the bumps that are found on the hard wing covers that the female has.

“So, it would be interesting to explore that a bit more, and to find out if perfectly smooth things are just as attractive as long as they are in the right colour range or whether it’s the way the light reflects and if they prefer things with a few bumps and nodules on them.”

Jewel beetles rely on colour to find their female mates.

However behavioural ecologist Dr Bruno Buzatto from the University of WA may have an explanation.

“I can only speculate but what happens with insects is that they have a simple rule to find females. In the case of the dung beetle, that is based on smell, so chemical cues mostly, because everything happens in the dark,” he told news.com.au. “In the case of jewel beetles it’s clear they use their vision a lot. And what we also know from a closely related species is that they can see UV light.

“We can already see that the colour of those objects match the colour of the beetle but it is also possible that under UV light the coincidence is even more similar.”

Dr Buzatto said the beetles could believe the objects not only look like a female but a huge female, and become “over-stimulated”.

As for trying to stop the love attacks, Dr Buzatto said incorporating a UV filter into fluorescent vests could be one solution to make the clothing less attractive to male beetles.

Note: underage beetles should not watch the video below.