Earth-boring dung beetle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Geotrupidae)

iEarth-boring dung beetle

Geotrupes stercorarius

Scientific classification

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

Genera

See text.

The earth-boring dung beetles, or dor beetles are a family of beetles, called Geotrupidae (from Greek geos, earth, and trypetes, borer). Most known species excavate burrows in which to lay their eggs. They are typically detrivores, 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 meters in depth.

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

[edit] Classification

They were originally classified as the subfamily Geotrupinae in the family Scarabaeidae before being elevated to a family. Traditionally the 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.

Image:Dung beetle Geotrupes sp.jpg

The family has more than 600 species in about 25 genera in three subfamilies.