Why Is Hawaii Evolving So Many Species of This Wingless Beetle?
Two Mecyclothorax beetles abandon their relatives on the forest floor to climb up a tree. They settle into a moss home, eat, mate, and die. A couple hundred years or so pass until one of the original beetles’ offspring walks back down. But all the close relatives it once had there are already gone. There’s nothing but strangers.
This may sound like a philosopher’s origin story for thebeetles. They belong to the carabid beetle family (more commonly known as ground beetles), which contains around 400 species.
