Strategus ajax (Olivier)

Ratcliffe, Brett C. & Cave, Ronald D., 2008, The Dynastinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of the Bahamas with a description of a new species of Cyclocephala from Great Inagua Island, Insecta Mundi 2008 (24), pp. 1-10 : 7

Strategus ajax (Olivier)

Strategus ajax is indigenous to Cuba ( Ratcliffe 1976). Twenty six specimens of this species have been collected on Great Exuma, Andros, Bimini, and Eleuthera islands in the Bahamas from 1962-1993 but only two specimens afterwards. Based upon the number of specimens collected, we believe this species is established in the Bahamas. This species may have rafted on flotsam with favorable ocean currents from Cuba. Iturralde-Vinent and MacPhee (1999) concluded that the effect of surface-current flow as a dispersal agent, while generally from the southeast to the northwest in the present-day Caribbean Sea, has not always been so, because surface-current patterns have changed radically with the formation of the islands of the West Indies and the closure of the isthmus of Panama. Given those constraints, it is reasonable to conjecture that the occurrence of S. ajax in the Bahamas is a relatively recent, geologically, event. The short distance between Cuba and the Bahamas, hence the brief over-water dispersal time, would favor survival of rafting, salt-intolerant animals.

Andros, San Andros, 16 August 1977, J. W. Smith, at light, 2 males and 1 female, TAMU ; Andros, Stafford Creek , 8 August 1982, B. and B. Valentine, 1 male, OSUC ; Andros, Forfar Station at Stafford Creek , 8 August 1982, B. and B. Valentine, at light, 1 specimen, MTEC ; Andros, San Andros Airport , 29 July 2006, M. C. Thomas, at light, 1 male, FSCA ; Bimini, South Bimini, 21 November 1962, R . Thomas, 1 female, FSCA ; Eleuthera, Rainbow Bay , 17 September 1984, R . and D. Wiley (3 specimens); 16-26 October 1985, J. R . Wiley (3 specimens); October 1986, J. Wiley (7 specimens); 1 July 1992, R . W. and D. B. Wiley (2 specimens); 21-26 November 1993, J. R . and S. C. Wiley, blacklight, (4 specimens), 11 males and 8 females, FSCA ; Great Exuma, Simon’s Point, 20 January 1980, 1 male at blacklight ( Ratcliffe 1982); New Providence, Coral Harbour , 14 February 2005, W. E. Steiner and J. M. Swearingen, found dead near base of casuarina near beach, 1 male, USNM .