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Aphodiinae
Aphodiinae is a subfamily of the scarab beetle family, Scarabaeidae. Members of this subfamily are known commonly as the small dung beetles and many, but not all, are dung beetles.Skelley, P. EAphodiinae.Generic Guide to New World Scarab Beetles. University of Nebraska State Museum. 2008 Version. These beetles are found worldwide. These beetles are small scarab beetles, most less than 8 millimeters long. Many have small mandibles that are covered by a widened clypeus, the exoskeleton plate above the mouth. The feet are clawed. This is a diverse subfamily with varied life strategies and habitat types. Many species are dung beetles, which collect and feed on animal dung. Other species are detritivores or saprophages, which feed on dead matter, and some are predatory. Some are known as inquilines, living in ant or termite nests, and some are sand-dwelling beetles. A survey of South American aphodiines found them in diverse habitat types including temperate rainforests, high-elev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dung Beetle
Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. Some species of dung beetles can bury dung 250 times their own mass in one night. Many dung beetles, known as ''rollers'', roll dung into round balls, which are used as a food source or breeding chambers. Others, known as ''tunnelers'', bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the ''dwellers'', neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in dung. They are often attracted by the feces collected by burrowing owls. There are dung beetle species of various colors and sizes, and some functional traits such as body mass (or biomass) and leg length can have high levels of variability. All the species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles). As most species of Scarabaeinae feed exclusively on feces, that subfamily is often dubbed ''true dung beetles''. There are dung-feeding beetles which belong to other families, such as the Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
