BEETLES' BIGGEST FAN? BUGS FASCINATE LOCAL RESEARCHER.

Byline: Cynthia Teed Daily News Staff Writer

Frank Hovore has just returned from the tropics of Ecuador, his bags bulging with more than 420 species of a beetle known to have cavorted around the Earth even during prehistoric times.

Formerly Los Angeles County's natural areas administrator for the North County, Hovore ran the Placerita Canyon Nature Center and 17 other such centers and natural areas in Los Angeles County for about 23 years.

But his real passion became his environmental consulting firm and his trips to observe firsthand the long-horned wood-boring beetle found locally in Placerita Canyon and in points beyond - mostly south.

``I'll go anywhere to study the beetle - anywhere I can get legal permits to do so,'' he said.

So Ecuador, French Guyana, Costa Rica and Panama have become like second homes to this intrepid beetle expert, with Ecuador listed as his favorite destination for serious bug study.

``Ecuador is the most exciting place,'' he said. ``The Andes run down the middle of the country, and it makes it fun because I drive the spine of the mountains.''

The cautious scientist always rents a four-wheel drive sport-utility vehicle for his forays into the outlying jungles and admits to having met dangers along the way.

During this last trip to Ecuador, a group of young natives felled a tree, then demanded payment to remove it from the road.

``They wanted 10,000 sucres, worth less than $1, to move the tree,'' he said. ``It wasn't so bad - the only serious incident in a 3,000-mile trip.''

But conducting serious research in the jungles of developing nations is not for the seriously impatient as bridges wash out, roads wash away, and the infrastructures are chronically fragile - and repairs are often a long time coming.

Speaking Spanish helps a lot, Hovore said. Most of the people he meets on his trips through Ecuador speak Quechua, an American Indian dialect that sounds a lot like grunting.

``I lose it (Spanish) here, and it comes back when I go down there,'' he said.

He plans to head back south this July to Costa Rica to teach a course on long-horned beetles at the National Institute for Biodiversity.

The beetle expert finds the insects fascinating because they are the largest group of the earth's living things.

``Insects make up 93 percent of all living things,'' he said. ``They've existed for millions of years. And 40 percent of all insects are beetles, so around 36 percent of all living things are beetles.''

It's a point Hovore has pondered since 1971, when as a budding young scientist the world traveler found two new beetle species in his back yard, the San Gabriel Mountains.

He named the new species the Atimia gannoni and the Clytus chemsaki - the latter named for the renowned Berkeley entomologist John Chemsak, one of Hovore's mentors.

Finding the new species was one of the catalysts spurring Hovore's lifelong interest in the beetle.

No fact about the insect bugs him, so fascinated is he by insect lore.

``American Indians were known to incorporate insects into their medicines, and we get shellac from insects,'' he said.

Hovore wants to pass his hard-earned knowledge on to the next generation by involving young people in the study of science.

To encourage young science students, Hovore will offer a tropical ecology course this summer at California State University, Northridge, with an accompanying field study excursion to Costa Rica.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Insect researcher Frank Hovore of Canyon Country often travels to remote sites to study beetles around the world.

(2) Frank Hovore collects beetles under a tree during an excursion to Panama in 1991. He calls Ecuador his favorite place for bug hunts.

(3) Frank Hovore scrutinizes a long-horned beetle from South America at his home.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News