Geotrupidae
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 Geotrupes stercorarius
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Geotrupidae (from Greek geos, earth, and trypetes, borer), the dor beetles or earth-boring dung beetles, are a family of beetles. 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.
The family has more than 600 species in about 25 genera in three subfamilies.
- Geotrupinae
- Anoplotrupes
- Blackburnium
- Ceratophyus Fischer von Waldheim, 1823
- Cnemotrupes
- Elaphastomus
- Enoplotrupes
- Eogeotrupes
- Geohowdenius
- Geotrupes Latreille, 1796
- Glyptogeotrupes
- Haplogeotrupes
- Indobolbus
- Megatrupes
- Mycotrupes LeConte, 1866
- Odontaeus
- Onthotrupes
- Pachypus
- Peltotrupes Blanchard 1888
- Sericotrupes
- Stenaspidius
- Thorectes
- Trypocopris
- Typhoeus
- Taurocerastinae
- Frickius
- Taurocerastes
- Lethrinae
- Lethrus
[edit] External links
- D. Jonathan Browne and Clarke H. Scholtz, Bolboceratidae, from the Tree of Life
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