Related Research Articles
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal life-forms; new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting that there are between 0.9 to 2.1 million total species. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are serious agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle, while others such as Coccinellidae eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.
The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change in recent years. Several subfamilies have been elevated to family rank, and some reduced to lower ranks. The subfamilies listed in this article are in accordance with those in Bouchard (2011).
Kleptoparasitism is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct feeding, which can mean when food is scarce or when victims are abundant. Many kleptoparasites are arthropods, especially bees and wasps, but including some true flies, dung beetles, bugs, and spiders. Cuckoo bees are specialized kleptoparasites which lay their eggs either on the pollen masses made by other bees, or on the insect hosts of parasitoid wasps. They are an instance of Emery's rule, which states that insect social parasites tend to be closely related to their hosts. The behavior occurs, too, in vertebrates including birds such as skuas, which persistently chase other seabirds until they disgorge their food, and carnivorous mammals such as spotted hyenas and lions. Other species opportunistically indulge in kleptoparasitism.
Paper wasps are vespid wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct nests made of gray or brown papery material. Some types of paper wasps are also sometimes called umbrella wasps, due to the distinctive design of their nests.
Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. Some species of dung beetles can bury dung 250 times their own mass in one night.
The scarab beetle subfamily Scarabaeinae consists of species collectively called true dung beetles. Most of the beetles of this subfamily feed exclusively on dung. However, some may feed on decomposing matter including carrion, decaying fruits and fungi. Dung beetles can be placed into three structural guilds based on their method of dung processing namely rollers, dwellers and tunnelers Dung removal and burial by dung beetles result in ecological benefits such as soil aeration and fertilization; improved nutrient cycling and uptake by plants, increase in Pasture quality, biological control of pest flies and intestinal parasites and secondary seed dispersal. Well-known members include the genera Scarabaeus and Sisyphus, and Phanaeus vindex.
Euphoria is a genus of scarab beetles in the subfamily Cetoniinae, the flower or fruit chafers. They are native to the Americas, where they are distributed from Canada to Argentina. They are most diverse in Mexico and Central America. As of 2012, there are 59 species in the genus.
Scarabaeus sacer, common name sacred scarab, is the type species of dung beetles in its genus and the family Scarabaeidae.
Dicranocara is a genus of Scarabaeidae or scarab beetles in the superfamily Scarabaeoidea. Dicranocara is endemic to the Richtersveld National Park. Three species are known, D. deschodti Frolov and Scholtz, D. tatasensis Deschodt and Scholtz and D. inexpectata Deschodt and Scholtz. Only D. tatasensis occurs south of the Orange River.
Eurysternus is a genus of Scarabaeinae or dung beetles in the family Scarabaeidae. It is normally placed in the Oniticellini, although some authors consider it the single genus in the tribe Eurysternini (e.g.). It is restricted to the Neotropics and includes 53 recognized species.
Phoresis or phoresy is a non-permanent, commensalistic interaction in which one organism attaches itself to another solely for the purpose of travel. Phoresis has been observed directly in ticks and mites since the 18th century, and indirectly in fossils 320 million years old. It is not restricted to arthropods or animals; plants with seeds that disperse by attaching themselves to animals are also considered to be phoretic.
Heliocopris hamadryas is a species of beetles of the family Scarabaeidae.
Termitotrox cupido is a species of scarab beetle in the subfamily Termitotroginae. It was first described by Munetoshi Maruyama in 2012, having been discovered living inside a nest of the termite Hypotermes makhamensis in Cambodia. It is a tiny, blind and flightless insect.
Sceliages, Westwood,, is a sub-genus of the Scarabaeus dung beetles, and are obligate predators of spirostreptid, spirobolid and julid millipedes, having renounced the coprophagy for which they were named. The genus is near-endemic to Southern Africa, Sceliages augias exceptionally ranging as far north as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Sudhausia is a genus of nematodes (roundworms) of the family Diplogastridae. They live in association with dung beetles and are primarily known from Africa. Species of Sudhausia show a suite of biological features that, together, are unusual for nematodes and animals in general: hermaphrodites, which are females in form, mature to produce offspring before they are adults and thus even capable of mating, and their eggs grow in size during development. Hermaphrodites are also always live-bearing, which is unusual for nematodes under non-stressful conditions. The genus is named in honor of Walter Sudhaus, a German nematologist.
Pyronota festiva, commonly known as mānuka beetle or mānuka chafer, is a member of the genus Pyronota of the beetle family Scarabaeidae. It is a scarab beetle endemic to New Zealand, and is commonly found in mānuka trees, hence the beetle's name. In some areas it is considered a pasture pest.
Teuchestes fossor is a species of dung beetle native to the Palaearctic, but is also widespread in North America following accidental introduction and naturalisation during European settlement. Both adults and larvae are coprophagous, differentiating resource use by respectively feeding on the liquid and fibrous fractions of herbivore dung. It can be readily collected from the dung of livestock, and other large mammals This species is known to support a number of key ecosystem services in cattle pastures.
Oniticellini are a tribe of scarab beetles, in the true dung beetle subfamily (Scarabaeinae). Nearly all species of this tribe feed on and nest in dung, mainly that of large herbivores. Most are tunnelers; dung is buried at the ends of tunnels dug below a dropping, and used as food by both adults and larvae; others, known as dwellers make brood cavities within or just beneath the dung.
Cartwrightia is a genus of scarab found in Latin America. It was named and circumscribed in 1958 by Federico Islas Salas. As of 2017, three species are recognized: C. intertribalis, C. cartwrighti, and C. islasi. They can be found in the nests of leafcutter ants or in dung.
Liatongus rhadamistus, or Scaptodera rhadamistus, is a species of dung beetle found in India, Sri Lanka, Laos and Thailand.
References
- ↑ "ITIS Standard Report - Error". Archived from the original on 2009-03-12. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
- ↑ "Cephalodesmius - Nomen.at - animals and plants".
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-03-27. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ↑ "The Biology of Cephalodesmius a Genus of Dung Beetles Which Synthesizes Dung from Plant Material Coleoptera Scarabaeidae Scarabaeinae". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 20: 253–278. 1981.
 | This Scarabaeidae-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |