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The genus Scarabaeus consists of a number of Afro-Eurasian dung beetle species, including the "sacred scarab beetle", Scarabaeus sacer and is the namesake of the tribe Scarabaeini, the family Scarabaeidae, the superfamily Scarabaeoidea and the infraorder Scarabaeiformia.
Scarabs are stout-bodied beetles, many with bright metallic colours, measuring between 1.5 and 160 millimetres (0.059 and 6.3 in). They have distinctive, clubbed antennae composed of plates called lamellae that can be compressed into a ball or fanned out like leaves to sense odours. Many species are fossorial, with legs adapted for digging.
The scarab was of prime significance in the funerary cult of ancient Egypt. Scarabs, generally, though not always, were cut from green stone, and placed on the chest of the deceased. Perhaps the most famous example of such "heart scarabs" is the yellow-green pectoral scarab found among the entombed provisions of Tutankhamen.
Chrysina, or jewel scarabs (not to be confused with jewel beetles, which are a different family), is a genus of brightly colored, often metallic iridescent species of ruteline beetles. They range from the southwestern edge of the United States , through Mexico and Central America , and as far south as Colombia and Ecuador . [ 1 ]
Scarabaeoidea is a superfamily of beetles, the only subgroup of the infraorder Scarabaeiformia.Around 35,000 species are placed in this superfamily and some 200 new species are described each year. [1]
Phanaeus, the rainbow scarabs, [1] is a genus of true dung beetles in the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles), ranging from the United States to northern Argentina, with the highest species richness in Mexico. [2] [3] Depending on species, they can inhabit a wide range of habitats, from tropical to temperate climates and deserts to rainforests.
P. vindex adults are hard-bodied beetles which range from approximately 11-22 millimeters (0.4-0.9 inches) in length. They are relatively bulky and oblong. These beetles are sexually dimorphic; the males can be identified by their iridescent elytra and a large horn on their heads while females have slightly less vibrant shells and lack horns.
Scarabaeus sacer was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, the starting point of zoological nomenclature.It is considered the type species of the genus Scarabaeus, despite some controversy surrounding Latreille's 1810 type designation, [2] which was resolved by a ruling of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in 2014, to accept Hope's 1837 ...