Advanced Insights into Goliathus orientalis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of Tanzania

Members of the Goliathus group in the order Coleoptera, family Scarabaeidae and the sub-family Cetoniidae is one among essential ecological insects worldwide with scanty documentation in Tanzania. The country was among the first point of collection of the specimen by Moser (1909) but subsequent attempts to locate and collect the specimen were unsuccessful possibly due to changed habitat and behaviour of Goliathus. Much of published work about the insect are based on the morphological characteristics of collected specimen which led to designation of six major species namely; Goliathus goliatus, G. cacicus, G. regius, G. albosignatus, G. orientalis and G. usambarensis, the last two being considered to exist in Tanzania. The current study reports on successful identification of habitats using biological cues and subsequently collected several Goliathus specimen that had been difficult to trace for more than a century. New insights into correct identity of the species by using a combination of morphological and molecular techniques have been set. The study has resolved that only one species, Goliathus orientalis with five sub-species exist in Tanzania.