Death Valley June beetle Concern by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The California Department of Fish and Game considers the beetle a "Special Animal" of high conservation need. Death Valley June beetle The Death Valley June beetle ("Polyphylla erratica") is a scarab beetle in the subfamily Melolonthinae. It is only known to occur in the drainage basin of the Amargosa River in the southwestern United States. Saltgrass communities, such as those at Saratoga Springs in Death Valley, provide habitat for the insect at all stages of its life. Predators of the beetle include coyotes, ravens, and shrikes, the last of which are
Death Valley Fault. The eastern end of the left lateral Garlock Fault intersects the Death Valley Fault. Furnace Creek and the Amargosa River flow through the valley but eventually disappear into the sands of the valley floor. Death Valley also contains salt pans. According to current geological consensus, at various times during the middle of the Pleistocene era, which ended roughly 10,000–12,000 years ago, an inland lake referred to as Lake Manly formed in Death Valley. Lake Manly was nearly long and deep, the end-basin in a chain of lakes that began with Mono Lake in the north and continued through multiple