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 Grapevine Mountains and the Owlshead Mountains form its northern and southern boundaries, respectively. It has an area of about . The highest point in Death Valley itself is Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range, which has an elevation of . Death Valley is an excellent example of a graben, or a downdropped block of land between two mountain ranges. It lies at the southern end of a geological trough known as Walker Lane, which runs north to Oregon. The valley is bisected by a right lateral strike slip fault system, represented by the Death Valley Fault and the Furnace Creek