Sisyphus (beetle)
Appearance
Sisyphus | |
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Sisyphus longipes | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Family: | Scarabaeidae |
Tribe: | Scarabaeini |
Genus: | Sisyphus Latreille, 1807 |
Species | |
see text |
Sisyphus is a genus of dung beetles comprising more than 90 species.[1] Adults are characterised by their long hind legs.[2]
Distribution
[edit]Africa, Eurasia, Asia, Central America and Australia.[1]
Habits
[edit]Adults separate balls of dung from droppings and roll them some distance over the soil surface before burying them.[2] Eggs are laid in the buried dung; this provides a source of food for the larvae once they hatch.
Species
[edit]One common species is Sisyphus schaefferi (Linnaeus, 1758).
References
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sisyphus.
- ^ a b "Sisyphus - Taxonomy". insectoid.info. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
- ^ a b Davis, Adrian L. V.; Scholtz, Clarke H.; Philips, T. Keith (September 2002). "Historical biogeography of scarabaeine dung beetles". Journal of Biogeography. 29 (9): 1217–1256. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2002.00776.x. S2CID 84689235.