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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf and Snout Beetles (Polyphaga) » Scarab, Stag and Bess Beetles (Scarabaeoidea) » Scarab Beetles (Scarabaeidae) » Dung Beetles (Scarabaeinae) » Canthonini » Melanocanthon

Genus Melanocanthon

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Numbers · Identification · Range · Food · Print References · Works Cited

Dung beetle with dung - Melanocanthon nigricornis

prob Melanocanthon - Melanocanthon bispinatus

Interesting black scarab with long legs - Melanocanthon

Scarabaeidae, head - Melanocanthon nigricornis

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga (Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf and Snout Beetles)

Superfamily Scarabaeoidea (Scarab, Stag and Bess Beetles)

Family Scarabaeidae (Scarab Beetles)

Subfamily Scarabaeinae (Dung Beetles)

Tribe Canthonini

Genus Melanocanthon

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Melanocanthon Halffter 1958

Numbers

four spp., all North American

Identification

The combination of quadridentate (four teeth) clypeus and most importantly the hind tibiae with two terminal spurs

(unique among the Scarabaeinae) will differentiate this genus.

Range

Distribution:

M. bispinatus - east coast, New York to Mississippi

M. punctaticollis - Florida

M. granulifer - southern coast, Florida to Texas

M. nigricornis - central states from Michigan to Texas, west to Nebraska.

Food

Varied, from fungi to dung of small mammals and other invertebrates

Print References

Harpootlian P.J. (1995) Notes and records of Scarabaeidae from the southeastern United States. Coleopterists Bulletin 49(3): 280. (info on M. bispinatus)

Williams A.H., Kriska N. (2002) Notes on the biology of Melanocanthon nigricornis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Great Lakes Entomologist 34(1): 129-131.

For particular species:

M. bispinatus (1)(2)

M. granulifer (2)

M. nigricornis (3)

M. punctaticollis (2)

Works Cited

1.	Scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of South Carolina Phillip J. Harpootlian. 2001. Clemson University Public Service.

2.	The Scarab Beetles of Florida Robert Woodruff. 1973. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

3.	The Scarabaeoid Beetles of Nebraska Brett C. Ratcliffe & M.J. Paulsen. 2008. University of Nebraska State Museum, Vol 22, 570 pp.

Contributed by Phillip Harpootlian on 9 August, 2006 - 7:40am
Additional contributions by cotinis, v belov
Last updated 7 March, 2015 - 8:30am

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