Searching for Beetles in Great Basin National Park

This article was originally published in The Midden – Great Basin National Park: Vol. 15, No. 2, Winter 2015.

The makeshift lab at the picnic table. Over 60 carabid beetle species were added to Nevada’s taxa list during this trip.

Photo by Kip Will

By Riva Madan, Frank Hsu, and Kip Will, University of California-Berkeley

Carabidae is family of beetles that have a cosmopolitan distribution and are often very common in the United States. Surprisingly, the number of published records of carabid species from Nevada is staggeringly low. In fact, of all the US states, Nevada, with only 242 species, has the second smallest list of recorded species (Bousquet 2013). The smallest list for any US state is Delaware, with 206. However, Delaware covers only a little over 6,400 square kilometres, while Nevada includes more than 286,000 square kilometers. It seems clear that there is a deficiency in our knowledge of Nevada carabids.

Our mission: To create an updated checklist of the carabid fauna in Nevada that better reflects the diversity that exists there. Together with work on specimens from museum collections, we decided that we would collect beetles at Great Basin National Park in order to contribute to the Park’s efforts to document its biodiversity and to look for carabid beetles to add to the list of species that have been previously documented for Nevada.

June 10, 2015 (by Riva) We arrived at Great Basin National Park and were greeted by Gretchen Baker, an ecologist at the park, who gave us a map to get us around the park and told us a bit about the area, some highlights to look for (like the awesome starry nights), access, and habitats.

After setting up in the Baker Creek Campground, on his first adventure out to find the toilets, Kip found a Rhadine (a genus of fairly uncommonly collected beetles that includes some well-known species that are cave dwellers) inside the restroom. As the night moved in, we donned our headlamps, fired up our vials, and brandished our tools and headed out collecting on a trail close to our camp. Since it was right after the “Rhadine hype,” we were all anxious to find more; however, we found mainly Pterostichus protractus, which turned out to be one of the most dominant species in the park. While peeling bark to look for beetles, we accidentally revealed a group of sleepy hornets hiding under the bark. Luckily, they were all inactive so they didn’t react much, but we got a nice adrenaline rush. We carefully tucked them back under the piece of bark and moved away as quickly as possible. We enjoyed seeing bats flying around us until one almost collided with Frank’s headlamp as he looked up to see what was making the fluttering noises. The night was cut short by cold drizzle. We headed back to camp to retire for the night; it was then when Frank and I realized: 1. how bad our tent was, and 2. how much we sucked at erecting tents. Water started to ooze in from the seams and drip from the roof. We could only think about how wet this night might get.

June 11, 2015 (by Riva and Frank) After more or less drying off our gear and re-erecting the tent with Kip’s help, our first order of business was to set up light traps that might capture night-flying carabids and other insects. We set up three UV-light traps, one each at Baker Lake Trail, Grey Cliffs, and Lehman Creek. Then we deployed our ramp traps at various locations and different elevations.

Frank sifting for beetles.

Photo by Kip Will

We laid out our handcrafted pipette-box-ramp traps at Snake Creek, along NF road 446, near the Strawberry Creek trailhead, and down in Osceola ditch trail. At the NF road 446 site, Kip found a deer skull that had been picked clean by insects and other animals. We were surprised at how white and clean the skull looked.

June 12, 2015 (by Riva) Today was our trip to the higher elevations, reaching about 11,000 ft. It is an easy drive to the trail head at Wheeler Peak Campground and from there we hiked to Teresa Lake. Along the way up the trail, we collected beetles near the melting edges of the snow patches. We were expecting to find Bembidion and Trachypachus here, but at first we didn’t find any beetles at all and started to get worried. As we continued to get to higher elevation, we started to find the beetles we were looking for. Being so small and fast, it was difficult for me to catch them at first even with an aspirator (aka pooter). Luckily, I quickly got the hang of it and started to find many beetles under the rocks by the lake.

In the stream running into the lake, we found some interesting cold water beetles that Frank and I hadn’t seen before. After having picnic lunch by the lake, we headed back down to the park maintenance headquarters and washed up in the first and only shower for the trip.

Once the sun set, we went to Snake Creek and set up a mercury vapor light sheet to do hand collecting. We were again finding many scarabs and Tenebrionidae, but we did get a few interesting things; Kip and I each collected handsome Carabus taedatus. Some Amara, small harpalines, and some Bmbidion and Pterostichus were found in the mostly dry creek bed. Though the collecting was slow, our list of species was growing.

Dead Lake didn’t look like much, but many additional beetle species were found here.

Photo by Kip Will

June 13, 2015 (by Riva) Our last day going out in the field at GBNP. We started off by picking up all the traps we had put out. Unfortunately, with the fairly cool weather and scattered rains, many of our ramp traps weren’t that successful; in some we got nothing, others only a bunch of ants. The only common beetles were more Pterostichus, lots of Calathus, and Tenebrionidae.

After all our trap samples were picked up we went on an adventurous hike to Dead Lake, a small lake well off the main trails and one that we were told nearly dries up in the summer. I admit I was unimpressed with the little pond at the end of the big hike. Luckily, it was worth the effort. We found many additional beetle species here and they were abundant. When we were done collecting around the lake, we picked up the flagged trail that would more easily take us back down.

Despite what seemed like very threatening weather, with thunder and some moments of rain, we collected on the way back. We made frequent stops to look under the bark of dead, fallen trees. At one deadfall suddenly Kip was very excited thinking that he may have found the rare “stink beetle,” Nomius pygmaeus, (we have never seen him that excited before). Sadly, when he checked it under the microscope, it was only the common smelly beetle Psydrus piceus. But at least it was another species to add to our list for the GBNP.

June 14, 2015 Packed up and headed home! The trip back to California was uneventful, but our work on the project continues. Samples to sort, specimens to pin, and lists to make. Between our trip and, mostly from specimens we have looked at in museum collections, we have easily more than 60 species to add to the list of carabids of Nevada.