The Natural History Museum's Entomology Section recently received a donation of extraordinary size and interest - the scarab beetle collection of former Insect Zoo Director Dr. Arthur V. Evans. With more than 40,000 specimens representing 2,000 species (about 7% of the entire world fauna), the collection is an excellent representation of the world's scarabs.

Scarabs are popular with collectors because of their bright colors and intricate patterns. One of the most obvious of the unifying characters of the group are the lamellate antennae whose segments that fit together like pages in a book. In other features, scarabs are wildly divergent, not only in structure, but also in lifestyles and habits. Most familiar are the dung beetles, which store pieces of animal droppings underground as food for their young. Another well-known group are the herbivorous june beetles, whose grubs eat plant roots, sometimes causing damage to economically important crops. The plant-feeding scarabs include the bright, metallic Green Fruit Beetle which is often seen buzzing around Los Angeles backyards.

It is in the tropics, however, that scarabs become most extravagant. There are the goliath beetles, hulking giants five inches (13 centimeters) that are found in Africa, where they noisily fly about seeking nectar and tree sap. In the tropics, males of some scarabs bristle with horns and spikes, earning them nicknames like "rhinoceros beetle" or "unicorn beetle."

The jewels of the scarab world are the gold and silver ruteline beetles, with their incredibly metallic and shiny finish. Relatives of the tropical gold beetles, such as the green and silver-striped scarab known as Plusiotis gloriosa, are found here in North America.

These treasures from Art Evans' collection, and Entomology's existing scarab holdings, are not just a static cache to be occasionally displayed and admired. Scientists working on describing and understanding the scarabs - on a worldwide as well as regional basis - often use the collection. For example, Museum Research Associate Dr. William Edmonds of California State University, Pomona, recently published new ideas on the interrelationships and evolutionary history of the New World species of the metallic green and copper-colored dung beetles of the genus Phanaeus; he based his work on our materials as well as those in other collections.

The foremost user of the collection, however, is Dr. Evans, who works on the melalonthines, relatives of the june beetles that are plain in appearance, but biologically interesting because of their restricted distributions and host plant relationships. His scientific studies have included the melalonthine species of both North America and Africa. Currently, Dr. Evans is undertaking a survey of the scarabs of California, a comprehensive, long-range project for which the museum collection is a vital resource.

About 35,000 species of scarabs have been formally described by scientists, and we are still finding new varieties. Although there are undoubtedly many undescribed species in the tropics, there are also discoveries to be made closer to home. A new species of scarab was recently found in an insect trap in the Topanga Canyon backyard of Dr. Gordon Hendler, the Natural History Museum's Curator of Echinoderms. Connoisseurs of beetle novelties can take heart: the frontiers of scarab discovery are not only in the wilds of the distant tropics, but also here in suburban southern California.