Scarabaeinae dung beetles

[marc]

Here's a marvelous site about scarabaeinae dung beetles. Must see for everyone interested in Scarabaeidae! Lots of beautiful pictures, and a wealth of other information.

scarabaeinae.lifedesks.org/

Marc

[marc]

Here is another good website on Scarabaeinae: www.zin.ru/animalia/coleoptera/eng/afrsc_ru.htm

On this website, you can view an atlas of representatives of different tribes of Scarabaeinae, and there is some very good photographs!

Description taken from the site: The subfamily Scarabaeinae (Scarabaeidae) comprises more than 5000 species belonging to 12 tribes and some 234 genera (Cambefort, Y. 1991. Biogeography and evolution // Hanski, I. & Cambefort, Y (Ed.). Dung beetle ecology. 51-67), however the classification of the subfamily is not well established yet. Some smaller tribes (i.e. Gymnopleurini, Eurysterini, Sisyphini) are very distinctive and there is little doubt about their monophyly, while others (i.e. Dichotomiini and Canthonini) are apparently polyphyletic. The classification will definitely be modified in the near future since many workers are currently doing research in the group's phylogeny. However the results published by now are too contradictory to provide the grounds for sound classification.

Scarabaeinae are especially diverse in tropics where they dominate another large group of dung beetles — Aphodiinae. Africa has the richest fauna of scarabaeines with more than 2000 species of 107 genera of 9 tribes. However, generic rank of some taxa, especially those in the tribes Onthophagini and Onitini, is debatable.

The photographs below represent some genera of different tribes of the Scarabaeinae. These images were prepared as a part of the Scarabaeinae Phylogeny programme of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and published on our site with the permission of the programme leader, Prof. Clarke Scholtz.

Marc