Sisyphini is a

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

of scarab beetles, in the

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 cha ...

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

( Scarabaeinae), but it may now be combined with the

Scarabaeini The ScarabaeiniLatreille PA (1802) ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des Crustacés et des Insectes. Tome 3.'' F. Dufart, Paris. are a tribe of old-world dung beetle genera, erected by Pierre André Latreille. Genera ''BioLib' ...

.Biolib.cz
tribus Scarabaeini Latreille, 1802 (retrieved 23 August 2021) The middle and hind legs are very long; the relatively short body is laterally compressed and has flattened sides. Relative to other dung beetles they are of small to moderate size (7–10 mm long).

Ecology

All species fly during the day (diurnal). They are all ball-rollers: a ball is fashioned from the dung, and rolled away from it by a pair of beetles; the male pushes with the back legs and the female pulls with the front legs. A short tunnel is dug in the soil, and the ball is buried at the end of it. After reworking the ball, the female lays an egg in it. The brood is then abandoned; after hatching, larvae feed on the dung ball.

Taxonomy

There are three genera in this tribe: *'' Nesosisyphus'' - Four species, all endemic to

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

*'' Neosisyphus'' - 24 species; 22 in Africa and two in the Oriental region *'' Sisyphus'' - 32 species; 20 in Africa

References

External links

* * Scarabaeinae Beetle tribes {{Scarabaeinae-stub