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Science 6 August 1976:
Vol. 193. no. 4252, pp. 484 - 486
DOI: 10.1126/science.193.4252.484
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Articles

Fog Catchment Sand Trenches Constructed by Tenebrionid Beetles, Lepidochora, from the Namib Desert

MARY K. SEELY 1 and WILLIAM J. HAMILTON III 2

1 Desert Ecological Research Unit, Post Office Box 953, Walvis Bay, 9190, South West Africa
2 Ecology Institute, University of California, Davis 95616

Three species of coastal Namib Desert tenebrionid beetles (Lepidochora) build trenches on desert sand dunes. Trenches are constructed perpendicular to fog winds and concentrate moisture during fogs. The beetles return along the ridges of the trenches extracting water from them. The water content of a population of these beetles increased by 13.9 percent during one fog

Submitted on March 29, 1976
Revised on May 26, 1976


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)