Spring dung beetle
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Spring dung beetle ( Geotrupes vernalis ) |
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| Geotrupes vernalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The spring dung beetle ( Geotrupes vernal , Syn. : Trypocopris vernalis ) is a beetle from the family of the dung beetle (Geotrupidae).
features
The beetles reach a body length of 12 to 20 millimeters. They are mainly blue, but also green, blue-black or black, with a metallic sheen. The pronotum is only bordered in the middle at the base. The deck wings have only very weak point stripes. The rails of the rear legs have two cross bars. There is a dark purple color variant of the beetle that occurs on the coast of the Benelux and the North Sea islands, this is called the subspecies G. vernalis insularis .
Occurrence
The animals occur in Europe , except in the far north, and in the south to northern Spain and the Balkans . Locally, it spreads across Asia Minor to Iran . They live mainly in forests and on sandy terrain.
Way of life
The adults are diurnal and feed on excrement, which they store in a short, sloping passage below the excrement pile. The brood care of this species is very pronounced. After mating, both partners dig a funnel-shaped pit about four centimeters wide and five centimeters deep, from the base of which they dig several horizontal passages about 20 centimeters long. These are filled with feces. Then a 50 centimeter long passage is dug vertically down from the funnel tip, which ends in a chamber. A four to five centimeter ball of feces is formed in it, in which an egg is placed in an egg chamber at the end. The ball is secured by sand and the main course is also filled with feces. The larvae feed on the excrement, are fully developed after about 10 months and pupate in the soil.
literature
- Karl Wilhelm Harde, František Severa, Edwin Möhn: The Kosmos Käferführer: The Central European Beetles. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-440-06959-1 .
- Jiři Zahradnik, Irmgard Jung, Dieter Jung et al .: Beetles of Central and Northwestern Europe. Parey, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-490-27118-1 .
