eTawau.com

Beetles of Borneo

Coleoptera

Field records from Tawau and Sabah, each with a date, a place and photographs, and a guide to the beetle families.

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About beetles

Beetles are the insects whose front wings have become hard wing cases (elytra) that close over the folded flying wings. They are filed under two pairs of wings. Each field record below has its own page, filed by scientific classification in a family folder (and a subfamily or genus folder when that is known), and prints on one or two A4 pages.

Field records

12 records, newest first. Five come from the Tanah Merah Mangrove Coast, Merotai.

A long, slender orange-brown beetle with short wing cases resting on grey granite

6 October 2026

A ship-timber beetle

Ji Min Moral Uplifting Society, Tawau. Tiny wing cases, long folded hindwings and a soft tapering body, about 40 mm, resting on a granite ball of the courtyard fence at dusk.

Lymexylidae · probably Atractocerus
A male three-horned rhinoceros beetle, genus Chalcosoma, on a white background

25 December 2022

The three-horned rhinoceros beetle

Kampung Sayap, Kota Belud. A male of the genus Chalcosoma, with three long horns.

Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae · Chalcosoma
A long, slender black straight-snouted weevil crawling on a green leaf

7 June 2014

A weevil with a straight nose

River Esplanade, Bandar Sri Indah, Tawau. A snout, but straight bead-like antennae instead of the elbowed ones of ordinary weevils. Beside the Babanga Stream, since dried up.

Brentidae
A spiny black and orange ladybird larva on rough grey concrete

12 December 2011

A ladybird beetle larva

Ikutmaju Sawmill, Tanah Merah Mangrove Coast. A spiny black-and-orange larva on the concrete floor of the sawmill.

Coccinellidae
A metallic jewel beetle on a thumb with its one remaining wing case raised

26 June 2011

The jewel beetle with one wing

Tawau River, opposite Pasar Semarak. It could not fly: the whole left side of its flight equipment, wing case and hindwing together, was gone.

Buprestidae
A large flattened dark trilobite beetle with orange-edged plates and pale-tipped spines, on a pale branch at night

August 2010

The trilobite beetle

Tawau River. A net-winged beetle whose female never grows wings.

Lycidae
A large metallic green scarab beetle with reddish legs on the palm of a hand

16 December 2009

A metallic green scarab

Kinabalu Park Headquarters. It flew clumsily across the Kinabalu Hall car park and landed in the ferns. Probably one of the chafers.

Scarabaeidae
A golden-yellow, black-spotted tortoise beetle with a clear glass-like rim, on a green leaf

25 August 2009

A tortoise beetle NEW

Ikutmaju Sawmill garden, Tanah Merah Mangrove Coast. Golden yellow with black spots inside a clear rim that hides the head; first taken for a ladybird.

Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae · Aspidimorpha
An orange-brown longhorn beetle with a golden, spined pronotum and white spots on its wing cases

28 July 2009

A round-necked longhorn beetle

Eda Sawmill log yard, Tanah Merah Mangrove Coast. About 6 cm, with a shining golden pronotum armed with a spine on each side and four small white spots on its wing cases.

Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae
An orange-red ladybird with black blotches walking along a green leaf stalk

5 October 2008

The transverse ladybird

Tawau River Triangle, Tawau. Orange-red with a black line down the middle and zigzag black bands; it climbed to the tip of a leaf stalk and flew off.

Coccinellidae · Coccinella transversalis
A mottled tan-and-black fungus weevil with long banded legs and long antennae, on graph paper

3 May 2007

A fungus weevil

Ikutmaju Sawmill, Tanah Merah Mangrove Coast. About 24 mm, measured on graph paper: a broad flat snout, straight antennae and a velvety ochre coat mottled with black.

Anthribidae · Acanthothorax
Two shiny metallic blue-green beetles mating at the tip of a chewed leaf

25 October 2006

A mating pair of flea beetles

Ikutmaju Sawmill, Tanah Merah Mangrove Coast. Metallic blue-green, mating on a leaf they had chewed full of holes, 100 m from the mangrove.

Chrysomelidae · Altica

Beetle families of Borneo

38 beetle families and groups found in Borneo, alphabetically by common name, with the scientific name beside it. Where the classification has changed, the older name is given too. The green links go to the records on this site; the other families have no record here yet.

Removed in October 2026: the fruitworm beetles (Byturidae) and the flat bark beetles in the strict sense (Cucujidae), neither confirmed from Borneo; and two entries that are not families at all, the bog and skiff beetles (suborder Myxophaga) and the "omnivorous beetles" (suborder Polyphaga, which holds most beetles). The old family pages, whose text came from an American insect book, now lead here.

Older pages

Older photographs

Photographs from the early years of the site, kept in the beetle folder, without date or place. A few show true bugs rather than beetles. Click one for the full-size picture.

Older photograph 1 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 2 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 3 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 4 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 5 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 6 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 7 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 8 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 9 from the beetle folder, undated Older photograph 10 from the beetle folder, undated Delta green ground beetle (older, undated photograph) Palm weevil (older, undated photograph) Gold bug (older, undated photograph) Longhorn beetle, Merotai (older photograph) Longhorn beetle (older photograph)

More insects

Two pairs of wings — butterflies, moths, bees, wasps, mantids, grasshoppers and cicadas · Insects of Borneo — the main index.