caculo portoricensis
Even though I have seen that various scarab species are referred to as caculos in Puerto Rico, the only insect called caculo growing up in my house in the middle of the San Juan metro area, was the May beetle, genus Phyllophaga. They make a distinct rattling sound with their wings that the cats love to hunt, and are often found lying on their backs like turtles, unable to turn back around. I remember trying to help many caculos stuck in this position when I was a kid and still do as an adult.
Now, hooked on iNaturalist I have been trying to identify a caculo I photographed earlier this year. I found a very helpful Insect guide for Puerto Rico here: http://edicionesdigitales.info/insectos/insectos.pdf
But I wanted to identify the species if possible. Googling the species mentioned in the guide, I found this fascinating article about Phyllophaga in Puerto Rico, which talks about the high endemism in this genus.
http://entomologylabpr.blogspot.com/2013/04/may-beetles-in-april.html
From the article: “Phyllophaga spp. in the Caribbean reveal a very high rate of endemicity. The Phyllophaga fauna of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) includes 48 species, all of which are endemic to that island. According to current estimates there are at least 22 species of Phyllophaga on the island of Puerto Rico or on surrounding islands (Isla Mona, Isla Caja de Muerto) and these are also thought to be endemic to the island of Puerto Rico. Furthermore, many of the species of Phyllophaga in Puerto Rico are very localized in their distribution: P. monana, restricted to Mona Island; P. guanicana restricted to the Guanica region (thought to be extinct but we found some specimens at the Juana Diaz Experiment Station); P. portoricensis restricted to the eastern half of the island (Manati and eastward); P. vandinei restricted to the western half of the island. Such endemicity suggests that Phyllophaga do not move very far.”
I just flagged the Phyllophaga genus to add Phyllophaga portoricensis to the iNaturalist database based on this quick research.
I’m in love with iNaturalist. Thank you chri360 :)
