| Pachylomera | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pachylomera femoralis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Family: | Scarabaeidae |
| Subfamily: | Scarabaeinae |
| Tribe: | Scarabaeini |
| Genus: | Pachylomera Kirby, 1828 |
| Synonyms | |
Pachylomerus Bertoloni, 1849 | |
Pachylomera [1] is a genus of dung beetle from the family Scarabaeidae and tribe Scarabaeini, with records from Africa south of the equator.
BioLib [2] lists:
P. femoralis is the largest flying, ball-rolling dung beetle in the world. The front legs are particularly strong, with the flattened leg appendages: it walks with these while rolling balls of buffalo and elephant dung.
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Holometabola. 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 species; new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting that there are between 0.9 and 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 35,000 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 Catalog of Life (2023).
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, such as 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.
Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. Some species of dung beetles can bury dung 250 times their own mass in one night.
Dynastinae or rhinoceros beetles are a subfamily of the scarab beetle family (Scarabaeidae). Other common names – some for particular groups of rhinoceros beetles – include Hercules beetles, unicorn beetles or horn beetles. Over 1500 species and 225 genera of rhinoceros beetles are known.
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 (telecoprids), dwellers (endocoprids) and tunnelers (paracoprids). 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.
Scarabaeus sacer, common name sacred scarab, is the type species of the genus Scarabaeus and the family Scarabaeidae. This dung beetle is native of southern Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, and it was venerated in ancient Egypt.
The genus Scarabaeus consists of a number of Afro-Eurasian dung beetle species, including the "sacred scarab beetle", Scarabaeus sacer and is the namesake of the tribe Scarabaeini, the family Scarabaeidae, the superfamily Scarabaeoidea and the infraorder Scarabaeiformia. These beetles feed exclusively on dung, which they accomplish by rolling a piece of dung some distance from where it was deposited, and burying it in order to feed on it underground. They also prepare food for their larvae by excavating an underground chamber, and filling it with balls that have eggs laid in them. The growing larva feeds upon the dung ball, pupates, and eventually emerges as an adult.
Sisyphus is a genus of dung beetles comprising more than 90 species. Adults are characterised by their long hind legs.
Agonum is a large genus of ground beetles in the subfamily Harpalinae, tribe Platynini. They are mid-sized to smallish beetles, typically with dark metallic hues – often reddish or bronze, but sometimes black, green etc.
Anachalcos is a genus of Scarabaeidae or scarab beetles in the superfamily Scarabaeoidea. It is one of only three genera of African dung beetles that have been observed rolling balls; the other two are Epirinus and Circellium.
Onthophagus is a genus of dung beetles in the Onthophagini tribe of the wider scarab beetle family, Scarabaeidae. It is the most species-rich and widespread genus in the subfamily Scarabaeinae, with a global distribution.
Acrossus rufipes, the night-flying dung beetle, is a species of scarab beetle. It was first recorded by the zoologist Carl Linnaeus as Acrossus rufipes in his 10th edition of Systema Naturae. The species was more recently considered a member of the genus Aphodius, but is now again classified as Acrossus rufipes.
Pachylomera femoralis is a species of blackish gray dung beetle from the family Scarabaeidae, which is widespread in the woodland and savannah regions of Africa south of the equator.
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.
Anachalcos convexus is a species of scarab beetle in the genus Anachalcos.
Insects have long been used in religion, both directly and as images or symbols.
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.
Thanasimus is a genus of checkered beetles in the family Cleridae. There are about six described species in Thanasimus.
The Scarabaeini are a tribe of old-world dung beetle genera, erected by Pierre André Latreille.
Data related to Pachylomera at Wikispecies
Media related to Pachylomera at Wikimedia Commons