Geotrupidae

Geotrupidae
Geotrupes egeriei
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Scarabaeiformia
Superfamily: Scarabaeoidea
Family: Geotrupidae
Latreille, 1802
Genera

25 see text.

Anoplotrupes stercorosus
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Geotrupidae (from Greek geos, earth, and trypetes, borer) is a family of beetles in the order Coleoptera. They are commonly called earth-boring dung beetles. Most excavate burrows in which to lay their eggs. They are typically detritivores, provisioning their nests with leaf litter (often moldy), but are occasionally coprophagous, similar to dung beetles. The eggs are laid in or upon the provision mass and buried, and the developing larvae feed upon the provisions. The burrows of some species can exceed 2 metres in depth.

A few species communicate by stridulation (rubbing body parts together to make sounds).

Classification

They were originally classified as the subfamily Geotrupinae in the family Scarabaeidae before being elevated to a family. Traditionally the dor beetle family Bolboceratidae was included (as the subfamily Bolboceratinae) on the basis of the number of antenna segments, but examination of a different set of characteristics prompted Scholtz & Browne (1995) to elevate Bolboceratidae to a family.

The family has more than 600 species in about 30 genera in three subfamilies.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.