Flightless dung beetle

Flightless dung beetle
Flightless dung beetle
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Scarabaeidae
Subfamily: Scarabaeinae
Tribe: Canthonini
Genus: Circellium
Latreille, 1825
Species: C. bacchus
Binomial name
Circellium bacchus
(Fabricius, 1781)

The flightless dung beetle (Circellium bacchus) is a species of dung beetle endemic to a few areas of South Africa, including the Addo Elephant National Park and the Buffalo Valley Game Farm.[1] It is the only species in the genus Circellium.[2]

The species was originally widespread in Southern Africa, but it only survives in the few areas mentioned above; as such, it qualifies as a IUCN vulnerable species. Its vulnerability is exacerbated by a number of other factors, including the fact that its habitat is under threat by agriculture and human activity, that is has low breeding capacity as well as low dispersability (as a consequence of being flightless), and that its survival is strictly dependent on a number of vertebrates (particulary elephant and buffalo) that are also experiencing a decrease in population.[1]

The flightless dung beetles mostly feed on elephant or buffalo faeces, but they have been recorded to also feed on dung from other species such as rabbits, baboons, antelopes, and ostrichs.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Circellium bacchus (Flightless dung beetle, Addo flightless dung beetle)". Biodiversity Explorer. http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/beetles/scarabaeidae/scarabaeinae/circellium_bacchus.htm. Retrieved October 16, 2010. 
  2. ^ Steven L. Chown, Pierre Pistorius & Clarke H. Scholtz (1998). "Morphological correlates of flightlessness in southern African Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae): testing a condition of the water-conservation hypothesis" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Zoology 76: 1123–1133. doi:10.1139/cjz-76-6-1123. http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/journals.old/cjz/cjz76/z98-036.pdf. 

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