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Photo#1305314
Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - female

Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - Female
Pleasantville, Westchester County, New York, USA
October 17, 2016
Size: est 3/4"
Does anyone know what kind of dung beetle this is? It has an intensely iridescent, bright blue-green underside. Its upper body is an iridescent green / yellowish-gold in sunlight and dark, nearly black in shadow. Its antennae are brownish-orange. Found burrowing in horse manure in late afternoon in woodland area.

Images of this individual: tag all
Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - female Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - female Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - female Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - female Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - female Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - female Dung Beetle - Geotrupes splendidus - female

Moved
Moved from Geotrupes.

Moved, Geotrupes sp.
Nice pics but I no longer have my keys for species-level ID

Moved from ID Request.

 
dung beetle
Thanks much for ID'ing the genus for us.

 
by the way...
how did you determine it's a female? the lack of horns doesnt help with this genus

 
Geotropes dung beetle gender
Now that you’ve ID’d the genus for us, we think the beetle might be male. (We initially thought this was a female because we first saw it exiting a hole in the ground that we assumed led to a tunnel nest, but now we've read that the males of this genus sometimes enter and prepare the nests as well).

We are wondering if this might be Geotropes splendidus, based on the description of this species as set forth in this bug guide entry: http://bugguide.net/node/view/376433 . We’ve added two pictures showing a short “medial impression on the pronotum at the scutellum” as described there.

This description jibes with the bug guide key for Geotropes appearing here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/12537; and with the H. F. Howden article listed at the bottom of that key's page.

Might this beetle be a Geotropes splendidus because of its bright greenish coloration (most visible on the underside); the punctures on the thorax; the punctures running through the striations on the elytra; the medial impression shown in the new photos; the beetle’s discovery in a woodland carpeted with leaflitter; and the fact that there are a limited number of possible Geotropes dung beetles in this region?

We saw in a general insect guide that Geotropes splendidus males have an inwardly projecting tooth on the front tibia of each foreleg (P. Bouchard, The Book of Beetles.) As shown in the photos, this beetle has this last trait. Is this a male then?

 
This is indeed Geotrupes sple
This is indeed Geotrupes splendidus, however it is a female. The female here does not have the protibial tooth you are describing. The tooth males have are inwardly projecting from the apex of the tibia, here the most anterior tibial tooth is pointing outwards away from the body.

 
Thanks!
Thanks!