GEOTRUPIDAE - EARTH-BORING DUNG BEETLES
Length: Small to medium-sized 5-45mm
Characteristics: Body ovaloid. Colour yellow, brownish, purple or black with or without metallic sheen. Antennae 11 segmented with three-segmented club. Clypeus often with horn. Convex pronotum with base wider than or equal to elytral base. Tarsal formula 5-5-5 with claws equal and simple. Abdomen with 6 free sternites. Wings well-developed.
Classification: Two subfamilies Bolboceratinae (including tribes Bolboceratini and Athyreini) and Geotrupinae (including tribes Geotrupini and Taurocerastini). Only the Athyreini and Taurocerastini are present in Paraguay.
Life Cycle: Spend most of their life in burrows. Diet varies between species, often coprophagous. Adults do not tend larvae but provision them with food in burrows, often under dung. Mainly nocturnal and some species are attracted to lights at night.
Online Resources
Generic Guide to New World Scarab Beetles Geotrupidae page
Click on the images to enlarge them.
Thanks to Carlos Aguilar Julio for his assistance with the identification of the species in this gallery.
Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this page were taken by Carlos Aguilar Julio and are used with their permission.
.JPG "FIGURE 1a") | FIGURE 1a |
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_b.JPG "FIGURE 1b") | FIGURE 1b |
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.JPG "FIGURE 1c") | FIGURE 1c |
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.JPG "FIGURE 1d") | FIGURE 1d |
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Gallery 1: Subfamily Bolboceratinae, Tribe Athyreini
FIGURE 1a - Athyreus tuberifer male lateral- Azotey, Departamento Concepción (Carlos Aguilar Julio November 2005).
FIGURE 1b - Same individual dorsal (Carlos Aguilar Julio November 2005).
FIGURE 1c - Same individual lateral- Azotey, Departamento Concepción (Carlos Aguilar Julio November 2005).
FIGURE 1d - Athyreus tuberifer female lateral- Azotey, Departamento Concepción (Carlos Aguilar Julio November 2005).
