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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles (Polyphaga) » Scarab, Stag and Bess Beetles (Scarabaeoidea) » Scarab Beetles (Scarabaeidae) » Dung Beetles (Scarabaeinae) » Canthonini » Deltochilum » Humpback Dung Beetle (Deltochilum gibbosum)

Species Deltochilum gibbosum - Humpback Dung Beetle

Classification · Explanation of Names · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited

Humpback Dung Beetle - Deltochilum gibbosum - male

D. gibbosum - male - Deltochilum gibbosum

It takes two... Deltochilum gibbosum - Deltochilum gibbosum

Beetle Identification - Deltochilum gibbosum

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga (Water, Rove, Scarab, Longhorn, Leaf and Snout Beetles)

Superfamily Scarabaeoidea (Scarab, Stag and Bess Beetles)

Family Scarabaeidae (Scarab Beetles)

Subfamily Scarabaeinae (Dung Beetles)

Tribe Canthonini

Genus Deltochilum

Species gibbosum (Humpback Dung Beetle)

Explanation of Names

Species name, gibbosum (or gibbosus), means "humpbacked". Common name is a coinage based on the Latin.

Size

20-25 mm

Identification

Large, round dung beetle, mostly dull black. Male has a prominent hump on each elytron. Front tarsi absent. Elytra have shallow grooves with punctures. Clypeus has two sets of teeth, the inner ones pointy, the outer rounded. (This is hard to see in photographs.)

Range

Southeastern United States

Habitat

Open areas with dung?

Season

All year in Florida. May-June, and September (North Carolina). May-July, September-October (South Carolina).

Food

Food of adults not listed in references. Attracted to rotting fruit, so perhaps takes some of that.

Life Cycle

Found on carrion and dung, also attracted to rotting fruit, fungi. This is a dung-roller. The brood ball is covered with soil and sometimes leaves, and placed in a shallow burrow.

Remarks

This genus/species is not listed in most references on North American beetles, despite being fairly common in the southeast.

Print References

Harpootlian p. 13, fig. 15 (1)

Brimley, p. 199 (2)

Internet References

North Carolina State University--Insect of the Week--photos of larvae in ball

Image from a bioblitz, Texas--poor image

North Carolina State University Entomology Collection has 45 pinned, including specimens from that state.

Biologia Centrali-Americana--plate with illustration of four species, including #13, D. lobipes, which looks identical to D. gibbosus (synonymous?)

Works Cited

1.	Scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of South Carolina By Phillip J. Harpootlian

2.	Insects of North Carolina By C.S. Brimley

Contributed by Cotinis on 2 July, 2004 - 4:16pm
Last updated 22 July, 2007 - 6:41am

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