Africa Wild

Have a few beetles from Daan Viljoen (april 2022).
Any ideas on species / genus / family?

Can you remember the sizes?

No, not really - not accurate enough anyway.
The ant in 2nd photo give away some indication on size though?

Try to have a look here: viewtopic.php?p=141921#p141921 There are lots of pics and descriptions

Great overview. I will take a look, but that will take a while. If I find them I will let you know.

I come to the conclusion that there are just to many look-a-likes and I just do not know enough about them to get a positive ID on those beetles.

Through iNaturalist I have received the following ID's to subfamily-level:
1) Dynastinae spec.
2) Melolonthinae spec.
Does anyone feel confident to get a step deeper to genus or even species level? Or a encyclopedia with the differences between the different species that can bring me closer...?

I did find a species-list of the species that occur in Namibia:
1) Dynastinae in Namibia: https://biodiversity.org.na/taxondisplay.php?nr=3630
2) Melolonthinae in Namibia: https://www.biodiversity.org.na/taxondi ... hp?nr=3631

Thanks again!

I am sorry that we could not help you more

Difficult species group...

Maybe a good time to shift to some moths...?
I have a few Id-ed already, a few I am not sure on a whole series of moths I have to do. I will put them one at the time so I be able to do some research on my own aswell. Pics still from Daan Viljoen, Namibia (april 2022).



I think Patania/Pleuroptya balteata, although I can't find any other records from Namibia so far.
It also could be Botyodes diniasalis, which does occur in Namibia according to africanmoths.com, but the other photo's I find on the net doesn't completely fit the bill (with some distinctive spots on the forewing).

Does anyone have experience with these species?

One of our members, "Klipspringer", is our expert, but I have not seen her around lately, maybe on holiday