Bodilus ictericus

Bodilus ictericus
Bodilus ictericus
Systematics
Order : Beetle (Coleoptera) Superfamily : Scarabaeoidea Family : Scarab beetle (Scarabaeidae) Subfamily : Dung beetle (Aphodiinae) Genre : Bodilus Type : Bodilus ictericus
Scientific name
Bodilus ictericus
( Laicharting , 1781)

Fig. 1: side view	Fig. 2: Front view	Fig. 3: Larva
Fig. 4: underside		Fig. 6: Wing cover tip from behind:
Fig. 5: Hind tarsus; green: upper mandrel of the splint, blue: 1st tarsal link

Bodilus ictericus is a beetle from the subfamily of dung beetles . The species is listed in the Red Lists of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania under category 3 (endangered). The genus Bodilus is represented in Europe with nine species , the species Bodilus ictericus in the two subspecies Bodilus ictericus ictericus and Bodilus ictericus ghardimaouensis .

Notes on the name

The beetle was first described by Laicharting in 1781 under the name Scarabaeus ictericus . The description is in German, begins with the German name and ends with a short Latin description. Laicharting gives the beetle the name "jaundiced dung beetle". The part of the name jaundiced corresponds to the Latin epithet ictericus (from ancient Greek ικτερικός ikterikós, jaundiced). It can actually only refer to the yellowish, not red, wing-coverts.

When the large genus Scarabaeus is split up , the species becomes part of the genus Aphódius (dung beetle, after ancient Greek άφοδος áphodos for defecation, excrement). Bodilus is established by Mulsant & Rey in 1871 as a subgenus of Aphodius and upgraded to a genus by Paulian in 1942. According to Schenkling, the name Bódilus is meaningless. At times, Aphodius ictericus was considered a color variant of Aphodius merdarius .

The descriptions and the naming of the species demonstrate the problematic situation of entomology at that time. Mulsant considers Scarabaeus ictericus Laicharting 1781 to be a color variant of Scarabaeus merdarius Fabricius 1775. This view is adopted by other authors who incorrectly write Scarabaeus ictericus Laicharting or Scarabaeus ictericus Laichs as a local variety or aberration of the earlier described Scarabaeus merdarius . In the same work, a few pages above, Mulsant mentions Scarabaeus ictericus Moll 1785 and Scarabaeus ictericus Paykull 1798 as synonyms to Scarabaeus nitidulus Fabricius 1792. Since nitidulus Fabricius and merdarius Fabricius are clearly different, Mulsant must be of the opinion that ictericus spawning and ictericus Paykull are different. On the other hand, Von Moll explains in a letter that his ictericus is the beetle described by Laicharting as ictericus . And Paykull noted that he the ictericus of From Moll describes. Paykull describes the Laicharting Beetle . In any case, Bedel 1911 uses ictericus Laicharting as a synonym for Scarabaeus nitidulus Fabricius 1792. Since the description of Laicharting is older, the species is now named after him. However, this assessment is not generally accepted. In a work about the scarab beetles of Spain in 1955, Báguena Corella identifies the species described here as Aphodius (Bodilus) nitidulus Fabricius = Scarabaeus nitidulus Fabricius 1792 = Aphodius (Botilus) ictericus auct. , nec spawn. , Scarabaeus ictericus Paykull 1798. Báguena Corella expresses that in his opinion the species is wrongly named after Laicharting and only Paykull described the same beetle as Fabricius in 1798 . The clarification of the contradictions would be possible by considering the types of Laicharting , whose whereabouts are not known. According to Dellacasa & Dellacasa , Scarabaeus ictericus Laicharting 1781 is the type for the new genus Bodiloides , which includes the smaller species of the old genus Bodilus . Accordingly, it is called Bodiloides ictericus .

Description of the beetle

The four to five millimeter long beetle is cylindrical to oval. The elytra are typically shiny light yellow-brown, the head, breast shield and underside are darker.

The head is red-brown at least in front, but can also be predominantly black-brown. It is only slightly arched and inclined only a little forward. It is fine, more coarsely dotted on the front side . On the forehead it has three humps, which are inconspicuous, especially in females, the middle one being the most obvious (Fig. 2). Viewed from above, the head is not very wide, the lighter front edge of the head shield is broadly edged with rounded front corners. The cheeks in front of the flat eyes protrude at most slightly. The antennae are nine-part, the second part is longer than the following five parts together. The antennae end in a gray-yellow, three-part, elongated round club.

The pronotum is almost completely brown-red or black, only laterally it is yellow-brown at the edge, at least at the back. The dotting is gone coarser especially to the sides than the dotting of the head, interspersed with much smaller points (double dotting the big points as the center points). The pronotum base is edged, the edge disappears in the middle of the base. The rear angles are rounded off obtuse.

The light yellow-brown and bare elytra shine, also at the clearly dotted tips (Fig. 6). This is an important feature for determination. Occasionally the wing covers are also pale yellow or reddish brown. Each wing cover has ten flat, deepened vertical stripes made of fine dots. These deepen and widen towards the rear, but do not reach the posterior edge of the elytra (Fig. 6). The seventh and eighth stripes are shortened at the front (Fig. 1). The intervals between the dotted stripes are barely arched and finely dotted and scattered, towards the end the dots become denser and stronger. The pointed triangular (not pentagonal) label is clearly recognizable, but not particularly long. Viewed from the front, the leading edge is no narrower than the first two intervals combined. The label is usually dark, as is the wing cover seam . According to the original description, the outer edge of the wing covers is also dark. In a description of the insects of Bavaria from 1798, the wing-coverts of the jaundice beetle are described as fringed with black everywhere . However, this is not generally true.

The underside is more or less dark according to the head and breast shield, but the last abdominal segments are lighter underneath (Fig. 4). The front legs are designed as grave legs with strong external teeth on the rails. The upper end spine of the posterior splint (green in Fig. 5) is shorter than the first link of the hind tarsi (tinted blue in Fig. 5). This is as long as the following two terms together. Center and rear rails have cross bars. At the lower edge of the middle and rear rails there are two terminal spikes of approximately the same length and a ring of relatively short, blunt and approximately equally long bristles.

The subspecies ghardimaouensis Balthasar 1929 differs from the nominate form in that the label is not only dotted at the end, but over half of it. Furthermore, the upper end spine of the rear rails is longer than the first tarsal link and this is shorter than the second and third link together, the fall of the wing covers is very fine and hairy. In addition, the individuals are slightly larger and differ in the structure of the sexual organs.

biology

Already in the first description it is noted that the species in Kühkoth is very common , so it is often found in cattle manure . For England it is often stated in somewhat dry horse manure in open terrain, not on grass . In Spain, the beetle is also found in sheep droppings. In Central Europe, the beetles can be found on sandy banks, overgrown dunes, sandy pastures, floodplains and ruderal areas.

Aphodius species usually develop within the dung heaps. A more recent study in southern Spain has shown, however, that there, in a very dry area, the larvae of a large number of Aphodius species develop in portions of feces that have been buried by other beetle species and are thus better protected from drying out. In Aphodius ictericus is this behavior not found. The animals lay their eggs in the dung heaps (in this case sheep droppings) in autumn. When scarab beetles were divided into several groups according to their appearance in Voronezh Oblast , the species was divided into the species-poor group of species, the occurrence of which occurs in summer - autumn with a peak in July.

distribution

The distribution area of ​​the species extends from southern Europe to southern northern Europe. With the exception of the higher mountain regions, it occurs frequently in Central Europe. The subspecies Bodilus ictericus ictericus occurs in almost all of Europe and the Middle East, the subspecies Bodilus ictericus ghardimaouensis in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

literature

• Heinz joy , Karl Wilhelm Harde , Gustav Adolf Lohse (ed.): The beetles of Central Europe . tape 8 . Teredilia Heteromera Lamellicornia . Elsevier, Spektrum, Akademischer Verlag, Munich 1969, ISBN 3-8274-0682-X , p. 325 .
• Klaus Koch : The Beetles of Central Europe Ecology . 1st edition. tape 2 . Goecke & Evers, Krefeld 1989, ISBN 3-87263-040-7 , pp. 366 .
• Edmund Reitter : Fauna Germanica, the beetles of the German Empire III. Volume, KGLutz 'Verlag, Stuttgart 1909 p. 309 as Bodilus nitidulus , not as an aberration of Esimus merdarius
• Gustav Jäger (Ed.): CG Calwer’s Käferbuch . K. Thienemanns, Stuttgart 1876, 3rd edition p. 312 as Aphodius nitidulus , not as a local variety of Aphodius merdarius .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Bodilus ictericus in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved January 7, 2014
2. ↑ Red Lists at Science4you, accessed on January 8, 2014 ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Bodilus at Fauna Europaea. Retrieved January 7, 2014
4. ↑ ^{a b} Johann.Nepomuk Laicharting: List and description of Tyroler-insects Part I. beetle-like insects I. Vol Zurich 1781. S. 14 at GDZ S. 36:14
5. ↑ Sigmund Schenkling: Explanation of the scientific beetle names (species)
6. ↑ ^{a b} Sigmund Schenkling: Explanation of the scientific beetle names (genus) .
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Étienne Mulsant, Claudius Rey: Coléoptères de France Lamellicornes-Pectinicornes Paris 1871 p. 278 at BHL genus description by Bodilus p. 278 , at BHL species description by merdarius p. 293F , at BHL species description of nitidulus p. 289f
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Marco Dellacasa, Giovanni Dellacasa: Comments on some systematic and nomenclatural questions in Aphodiinae with descriptions of new genera and of Italian taxa Memorie Soc. Entomol. Ital. 2005 84, 45-101, doi: 10.1134 / S0013873809010163 .
9. ↑ Gustav Jäger (Ed.): CG Calwer’s Käferbuch . K. Thienemanns, Stuttgart 1876, 3rd edition p. 314 as Aphodius merdarius
10. ↑ Edmund Reitter : Fauna Germanica, the beetles of the German Empire III. Volume, KGLutz 'Verlag, Stuttgart 1909 p. 312 as Esimus merdarius
11. ^ Karl Ehrenbert Ritter von Moll in Franz and Paula Cabinet: Natural History Letters on Oestreich, Salzburg, Passau Berchtesgaden Austria, Salzburg, 1785, ninth letter p. 168 No. 13 in BHL p. 168.
12. ↑ Gustaf von Paykull : Fauna Suecica Volume II Upsala 1798 p. 17 f at GDZ 31:17 No. XXI
13. ↑ Luis Baguena Corella: Scarabaeoidea de la Fauna Ibero-Balear y Pirenaica Madrid 1967 p. 134
14. ^ Franz and Paula cabinet: Fauna boica - Thought-out history of the domestic and tame animals in Bavaria Nuremberg 1798 p. 389 at BHL p. 389
15. ↑ L. Jessop: Dung Beetles and Chafers - Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea in Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects Vol. 5 Part 11 London 1986 p. 23 [1]
16. ↑ ^{a b} Adela González-Megías, Francisco Sánchez-Piñero: Effects of brood parasitism on host reproductive success: evidence from larval interactions among dung beetles Oecología (2003) 134 pp. 195-202 doi: 10.1007 / s00442-002-1100-8
17. ↑ SO Negrobov: Seasonal dynamics of scarab beetles (Coleoptera, Lamellicornia) in Voronezh Province Entomological Review Vol. 89, No. 1 pp. 113–115, ISSN  0013-8738 , doi: 10.1134 / S0013873809010163 .
18. ↑ Bodilus ictericus ictericus in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved January 7, 2014
19. ↑ Bodilus ictericus ghardimaouensis in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved January 9, 2014

Web links

Commons : Aphodius ictericus  - collection of images, videos and audio files