Dor Beetle?
May 13, 2009
After the sun had come out, and we descended Boulder Valley towards the Pudding Stone, I noticed a little drama down in the grass. He was in hot pursuit (presuming that’s ‘he’ on the left) and only seemed to have one thing in mind. The closest I kind find in my field guide is the dor beetle Geotrupes Stercorarius.
Females burrow under cow and horse dung and fill their tunnels with it as a larder for their offspring.
Hmmmm…..no cows or horses hereabouts and so no cow or horse dung.
Living mainly on lowland pastures.
These were at around 350 metres, hardly mountaineers but not lowlanders either.
G. Stercorosus and G. Spiniger are very similar.
Perhaps there’s an answer then. But on those two mysterious species my book has nothing further to say!
A little internet research reveals that the former is ‘The Forest Dung Beetle’, and as Ron has pointed out, trees are in short supply in this area, and the latter is a ‘Dumbledor’. Google image results suggest that they do indeed look very similar. Definitely dung beetles then.
May 13, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Yes, definitely a Dor Beetle, ie Geotrupes species, but we can’t say G. stercorarius or G spinger. To differentiate between these two you really need to count the hairs on the underside of the body.
I would label it Geotrupes sp possibly G. stercorosus.
May 14, 2009 at 8:19 am
Whatever they are it’s a great photo.
May 16, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Brilliant photo! And “Dumbledor”? Harry Potter fan here (adult) – um, intriguing. Must go look it up!