Description
Colophon Primosi Painting
Artist: Kayla Aryn
Acrylic on wood
Measures approximately 18″ x 12″ x 1.5″
Indiscriminate collecting and habitat destruction, especially from fires as the beetles are flightless, are so threatening to the genus, it has been placed under the protection of nature conservation laws in South Africa, with C. primosi being particularly endangered.
Colophon beetles are also known as Barnard’s stag beetles, after Dr. Keppel Harcourt Barnard (1887–1964), who pioneered studies of this genus while working at the South African Museum. Barnard’s mountaineering interest first brought him into contact with the genus, and many species of the beetles were named after his mountaineering friends.
