Mandy Mountain is a master’s student in Biological Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she studies the life history and habitat requirements of the Nevada endemic dune beetle Pseudocotalpa giulianii. Her research focuses on how climate and moisture related conditions shape reproduction, early development, and population persistence in desert dune systems. Through this work, she is interested in linking basic natural history with conservation and land-management applications.
SESSION
Beyond the Flight Season: Hidden Reproductive Timing and Moisture-Dependent Egg Survival in the Nevada Endemic Dune Beetle Pseudocotalpa giulianii
This poster examines how adult lifespan and egg-stage development extend the effective reproductive timeline of the Nevada endemic dune beetle Pseudocotalpa giulianii beyond its brief visible spring flight season. Although adults are active aboveground for only a short seasonal window, my research shows that females persist much longer under laboratory conditions and likely remain underground for an extended period while reproduction continues. I use these results to highlight how the visible flight season may underestimate the full period during which reproduction and early development are occurring. The poster also focuses on egg-stage ecology, including incubation duration and the effects of sand moisture on hatch success. Eggs required approximately five to six weeks to hatch under laboratory conditions, and hatch success was strongly moisture dependent: eggs failed to hatch in dry sand but hatched successfully in moist sand. Together, these findings suggest that subsurface moisture is an important habitat feature for successful reproduction and early survival, with potential implications for how this dune-restricted species may respond to climate-related drying and habitat disturbance.