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100
BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA STATE MUSEUM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Brett Ratcliffe is the Curator of the Division of Entomology and Professor at the
University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln. He is a specialist in the taxonomy, biology,
ecology, phylogeny, and biogeography of scarab beetles, especially those of the Neotropics. He
studied silphids for his Master's degree, and he has maintained an interest in carrion beetles
ever since. He is currently leading research programs in Nebraska to study the endangered
American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus), which is now found in only five states,
including Nebraska.
Dr. Ratcliffe has conducted extensive field research in Japan, North America, Mexico,
Central America, South America, and South Africa. From 1976 to 1978, he was head of the
systematics entomology research collections for the National Institute for Amazonian Research
(INPA) in Manaus, Brazil. During the past five years, he has collaborated closely with the
National Institute for Biodiversity (INBio) in Costa Rica, the University of Panama, and the
Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute in Panama to conduct biodiversity survey programs
of the dynastine scarab beetles of those countries. He is the author of numerous scientific
papers and popular articles about beetles as well as a book, The Scarab Beetles of Nebraska.