Tropical splendor is rare among the Colorado insect fauna. Most of our bugs are small and brown or black. The Rainbow Scarab, Phanaeus vindex, is a remarkable exception. A sparkling emerald of a beetle, to be found in … poop! It is the biggest and prettiest of our 70+ dung beetle species in Colorado. One of our wonderful volunteers collected this male at the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora, right in our backyard. You don’t have to travel far to find remarkable insects in Colorado.
Frank-Thorsten Krell, PhD
Senior Curator of Entomology
Andrew Doll, MS
Zoology Collections Manager