Photo Marten Scheffer Some time has passed since the storms ravaged the country almost three weeks ago. Eunice’s gusts ripped an elytron off the beetle in the Orion pond. The fibreglass shield has since been lost.
A search in the weekend immediately after the storm yielded no results. ‘I think it may be at the bottom of the pond’, the beetle’s spiritual father Marten Scheffer suggested. Two attempts to locate the elytron in the pond followed. The first attempt was made by two people poking around in the pond with poles, professor Scheffer explains. The shield, however, was nowhere to be found. ‘The problem is that the elytron is the same colour as the pond’s bed and of the black-brown water.’
A more extensive search with more manpower yesterday was more successful. Clara Delecroix, a PhD student under Scheffer, managed to localise the elytron. Not in the pond where the beetle is located but in the section of the pond on the other side of the bridge. ‘It poked out from the floor of the pond under an angle’, Scheffer clarifies. ‘According to my reconstruction, the item must have been carried along by the wind, to ultimately slide through the water and pond floor like a knife.’
Fishing nets
Photos show the dredging party armed with fishing nets. It looks a little silly. Scheffer: ‘We bought the nets for a water-creatures-day for school children. Now we used the bamboo handles to poke in the opaque water.’ The elytron is slightly damaged. The Danish artist Vagn Iversen will come to the campus this spring to attach the elytron back onto the beetle.
The student sailing association and the student diving association both offered their help in the search
Marten Scheffer, Must Leave’s spiritual father
The missing elytron caused quite a stir in the past weeks. ‘Heartwarming’, says Scheffer. ‘The student sailing association and the student diving association both offered their help in the search.’ The bottle of home-distilled liquor that Scheffer offered as a finder’s fee may have contributed to the enthusiasm. That bottle will now remain at the department.
