Thursday, January 7, 2010

APB: New Species







This Aphodiine has got to be the coolest dung beetle I've ever seen. The sculptured exoskeleton is very unique. And what's with the double horns? All I know is that it's from peninsular Malaysia and will be named Rhinocerotopsis nakasei.  A 'typical' North American Aphodiinae is shown below. Look for the family resemblance in the shape of the head.



References:
Maruyama (2009) Rhinocerotopsis nakasei (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Aphodiinae), a new genus and species of Stereomerini from Peninsular Malaysia. Esakia, in press.


The great picture of the new species came from a Japanese naturalist's blog Taro introduced me to: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/dantyutei/

The typical beetle comes from Bug Guide. http://bugguide.net/node/view/355100/bgimage

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