224 American Entomologist • Winter 2007 Reflections On Golden Scarabs Reflections On Golden Scarabs I n Edgar Allen Poe’s The Gold Bug, the protago- nist describes a species of “scarabaeus,” from South Carolina: “It is of a brilliant gold color – about the size of a hickory nut – with two jet black spots near one extremity and another longer one at the other.” In Poe’s story the golden beetle is dropped to the ground through the eyesocket of a human skull. By digging at the spot where the beetle landed, a treasure of real gold coins is found. Students of Poe’s writing suggest that the passage of a golden beetle through a human brain case is an allegory for the acquisition of knowledge. Interestingly, such a beetle, Pelidnota punctata (L.), is found in South Carolina and may have served as the inspiration for Poe’s story, though it is more shiny yellow than gold. Truly metallic gold-colored scarab beetles are found in the genus Chrysina (Fig. 1), whose very name is derived from chrysos, the Greek word for gold. The frst society of entomologists, founded in London in 1745, was called the Aurelian Society from the Latin word for gold, aureolus. Chrysina beetles are also known as “jewel” scarabs (Cave and Hawks 2001), because in addition to the gold and silver species, many—actually, most—are emerald green (Fig. 2), with some spectacular spe- cies having combinations of green, gold and silver. They are prized among collectors to the point of an inordinate fondness, some would say obsession, known among afcionados as the “green fever.” Entomologists are truly treasure hunters! Apart from their extraordinary beauty (and market value), Chrysina beetles are of scientifc interest as exemplars of the role of color in evolu- tionary adaptation and radiation. The genus is a diverse, and thus evolutionarily successful group, Donald B. Thomas, Ainsley Seago, and David C. Robacker “All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream” -Edgar Allen Poe Fig. 1. Chrysina aurigans (Rothschild & Jordan) is normally a shiny gold beetle, but this variant shows a red blush, perhaps attributable to an irregular distribution of uric acid in the exocuticle. Fig. 2. Chrysina gorda Delgado, named for the Sierra Gorda in Queretaro, Mexico. F emer varia Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/53/4/224/2389740 by guest on 21 July 2022