“I have this habit of going to places in the middle of nowhere. One of the neat areas I've been exploring is sand dune complexes in southern Wyoming. They are massive. Each dune is 1/4 to 1/2 mile across, one after another as far as the eye can see. It's a unique complex,” Brust said.

The tiger beetle he was seeking was not there, but he saw a number of apparent scarab beetles that looked like bumblebees zipping around.

“These were very different from anything I'd seen. The way the wing covers actually looks like a bee. I caught five, kept one, and pinned it. It will end up in the CSC collection. I looked on a website called Bug Guide,” he said. “They look similar to Lichnanthe ursina, but that species is only along the West Coast. There's another member of the genus that gets into Utah but it doesn't look anything like the specimens I found.”

Brust contacted Dr. Matt Paulsen at the University of Wyoming asking for his opinion about the find. Paulson said it may be a new species. According to Brust, Paulsen and Dr. Brett Radcliffe at the Nebraska State Museum are generally considered the leading scarab beetle experts in the world.

Brust plans to return to the same area in July 2023 to collect more specimens because the process of officially describing a newly discovered species involves collecting a series of specimens to represent variations in color, markings, and size. Brust said the naming of a new species can be based on something about its appearance, the area where it was collected, or the person who discovered it. He and Paulsen went to school together so it might be named for Brust, but he isn’t holding his breath.

Scarab beetles and their close relatives have large antennae and round, plated bodies such as dung beetles and June bugs.

“We’ve got a couple in Nebraska that look very much like bumblebees. Mimicry is something I cover in my classes. There are a lot of imposters because if you look like a bee then predators like birds don't mess with you,” he said.

What are the benefits of living in a sand dune area? I wonder what the heck the larvae survive on. Maybe roots in the soil. Why do organisms live in these really tough environments? They've got two things going for them. One, there are not many predators and, two, there is not much competition. So, if you can survive that environment, you get all those resources to yourself.”

Tibbits plans international granite research; national presentation

CHADRON – This spring, Chadron State College Associate Professor Dr. Tawny Tibbits will travel to Belize to conduct research on granite using a portable Xray fluorescence (pXRF) unit. Several weeks later, she and her colleagues who recently co-authored an academic journal article, will present their research at a national conference.