| | S | M | T | W | T | F | S | | 29 | 30 |
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
| |
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
| |
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
| |
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
26
| |
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
31
| 1 | 2 |  » Stats |
Members: 50,149
Threads: 82,327
Posts: 853,142
Top Poster: glsammy (15,069)
| | Welcome to our newest member, TransAmDan | |  | 
16-01-2009, 10:29 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: South Northants
Posts: 3,289
| | | Beetle with cute antennae - Bucks
Taken back in Novemeber 08 at Stony Stratford Nature Reserve. Size ~6mm.
Didn't realise that this beetle was missing a leg (or it's well hidden) until I came to prep this pic for uploading to WAB.
Help with id appreciated as always. 
Bruce  |
16-01-2009, 11:09 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wye Valley, Mid-Wales
Posts: 1,160
| | | Re: Beetle with cute antennae - Bucks
Hi Bruce
Looks like an Aphodius sp. to me, possibly A. maculatus.
Steve |
17-01-2009, 06:12 AM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Barnsley
Posts: 1,727
| | | Re: Beetle with cute antennae - Bucks
agree its an Aphodius |
17-01-2009, 08:42 AM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 7,655
| | | Re: Beetle with cute antennae - Bucks
Yes, an Aphodius but far too early in the day (not finished one coffee yet) to think which! |
17-01-2009, 09:39 AM
|  | Knight Grand Cross of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: North Yorkshire
Posts: 10,729
| | | Re: Beetle with cute antennae - Bucks
Its Aphodius contaminatus. |
17-01-2009, 09:41 AM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 828
| | | Re: Beetle with cute antennae - Bucks
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dogghound  Its Aphodius contaminatus. | Beat me to it
I agree.
Regards Chris. |
17-01-2009, 10:32 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: South Northants
Posts: 3,289
| | | Re: Beetle with cute antennae - Bucks
Thank you all for your help - much appreciated .
Your id led me to Google a few interesting bits of info new to me (...then I suppose anything about this species is gonna be new to me isn't it ).
Well apparently this little Dung Beetle uses its interestingly ornate antennae to locate fresh mammal dung to lay its eggs in (having a preference for rabbit dung in this instance). I don't know if the adult beetle also eats the dung but after hatching the larva does eat the dung and (so it's claimed) can do some damage to grass roots. However I read that the main damage to grass is done by birds as they enthusiastically root around for these grubs - a problem on some golf courses it seems.
I also read that a lot of them are caught on the wing. On reading this my initial thought was "how do we know that"? Which led to - "hmmm I guess someone has been rooting around in bird droppings to check for such things" (bird post mortems are maybe another possibility). Finally I read that a lot land on water (puddles etc) and drown.
So all in all they're not the most blessed of species are they. Taking everything together - they start their life buried in poo and on reaching adulthood (if they avoid the rooting birds that is) they fly off only to be eaten by flying birds or drowned when they land  .
Bruce
Last edited by Bruce Williams; 17-01-2009 at 10:35 AM.
| | |
| Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode |
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
| | |
| | | 12 members and 330 guests | | Albabob, AndrewA123, Cotham Marble, Dorts, Douglas, hughg, Johnny81, nikolai_avenger, speyghillie, steve47, TransAmDan, Xav | » New Wildlife Posts | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | » New Environment Posts | | | | | | | | | » New Activity Posts | | | | | | | | | » New Community Posts | | |  Spammers! Yesterday 08:00 AM 5 Replies, 108 Views | | | | | |
