At the moment, your newsletter editorial staff consists of three editors (in alphabetical order):

Steven Barney:

I am a lifelong beetle enthusiast; my primary focus has always been species within the scarabaeoidea superfamily. I am the proprietor of The Beetle Experience where I organize events and give presentations featuring live invertebrates. This project began in 2003 as an informational website about the beetle hobby and slowly evolved to where it is today. I have recently been able to add giant, exotic beetles to the list of available insects. I am also the owner of Beetle Source which sells beetle jelly and rearing supplies, mainly to zoos and institutions in the U.S.A. In 2014 I conceptualized and curated the Crawl Space Entomology Exhibit at the Lafayette Science Museum. It was started with local beetles, other insects, myriapods and arachnids and how houses tarantulas, giant centipedes and exotic roaches. In 2012 I coauthored the book, The Complete Guide to Rearing the Rainbow Scarab and Other Dung Beetles with my friend Orin McMonigle.

I am the creator and organizer of the recurring events Bugstock and Insect Day. Bugstock is mainly a private event that has taken place since 2007 on 130 acres near central Louisiana. It was featured in the Animal Planet show Bug Eating Man with David Gracer in 2008. Insect Day is a public event that brings together entomologists and insect enthusiasts from around Louisiana and neighboring states. Last year saw our 9th event and we drew over 1,000 visitors.

Auke Hielkema:

Growing up as the son of an avid Dutch scarab collector, I learned to collect beetles from an early age. Several years after graduating as an engineer in tropical forestry, I ended up in Suriname (northern South America) where I have been living for 15 years now. As a general naturalist, I am now mainly focusing on photographing and studying all the macroscopic biodiversity of Suriname. When not in the field looking for insects to catch or to photograph, I try to earn a living by working as a tour guide, nature consultant, biodiversity researcher, author and text editor.

Although I have no private collection, I still collect insects for my father and some other researchers. Over the years I have developed some of my own collecting equipment, and I recently published the solutions to a variety of nomenclatural problems regarding Neotropical Scarabaeoidea. Together with my father I also just published a checklist of the Scarabaeoidea of the Guianas. As a contributor to this newsletter I am looking forward to sharing some of my experiences with you, and as an editor I hope you will be sharing some of your stories too.

Jason Maté

I have been an avid amateur entomologist for as long as I can remember and settled into Coleoptera early on. After finishing my PhD degree in 2003 (“Radiation and Diversification of Aphodius Dung Beetles”) I went into industry but always kept a toe in entomology, publishing small articles as work and family commitments allowed. Although my main interest is in Aphodiinae, I have an ongoing interest in other groups, including non-scarab taxa like Ptiliidae and Lathridiidae (nobody is perfect).

I am mainly interested in employing new techniques that I have picked up through my job (imaging, automation, remote sensors and dataloggers) towards the phylogenetics and ecology of Aphodiinae of the Old World and Oceania. I am currently working on several revisions at present including a revision of the genus Ataenius of the Ethiopian region and of the subgenus Liothorax in the Palearctic. Although I have never contributed to newsletters before, I strongly believe in the unifying effect a newsletter can have in our community and I would like to encourage everybody to contribute their stories and ideas relating to any topic scarab.