Subfamily Aphodiinae

<I>Aphodius (Acrossidius) tasmaniae</I> Hope, 1847

Aphodius (Acrossidius) tasmaniae Hope, 1847

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Subfamily Aphodiinae

Compiler and date details

1 December 2002 - Gerasimos Cassis & Tom A. Weir; updated by Andrew A. Calder, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, Australia

Introduction

The Aphodiinae are a large cosmopolitan subfamily of Scarabaeidae with a world fauna of some 148 genera and 3,190 species (Dellacasa 1988a, 1988b, 1989, 1991, 1996). The suprageneric classification used in this Catalogue follows Stebnicka & Howden (1996). Previous classifications have been published by Rakovic (1987), Schmidt (1922), Balthasar (1964), Endrödi (1964) and Tangelder & Krikken (1982). Dellacasa's (1988a, 1988b, 1989, 1991, 1996) world catalogue gives a slightly different arrangement of subfamilies, tribes, genera and species.

The placement of the endemic Australian genus Saprus Blackburn is problematical due to its unusual suite of characters (Stebnicka & Howden 1995). However, most of the characters represented in Saprus are shared or represent a transition series with Leptaegialia Brown, which is considered as a subgenus of Aegialia Latreille by Stebnicka (1977) and Gordon & Cartwright (1988), as well as with the Psammoporus- and the Silluvia-groups of Aegialia. This has led Stebnicka & Howden (1995) to consider Saprus as basal to the Aegialiini lineage. In this Catalogue we have followed the recent revision of Stebnicka & Howden (1995), placing Saprus in the Aegialiini.

Eight tribes are present in Australia (Stebnicka & Howden 1996). The cosmopolitan tribes Aphodiini and Psammodiini contain about 35 and 15 genera respectively. The Eupariini is almost worldwide with about 38 genera. The pantropical Odontolochini and Rhyparini each contain four genera, while the Stereomerini contain six genera from Australia and the Oriental Region. The cosmopolitan tribe Aegialiini contains eight genera, while the primarily Australian and African Proctophanini contains four genera. The essentially Oriental Odochilini, a tribe excluded from Australia (Rakovic 1987), have been taken in the adult stages in leaf litter, which is an indication that they are probably saprophagous.

Stebnicka & Howden (1996) provided the most recent key to the tribes; Schmidt (1910a, 1922) described and produced keys to all the known taxa of the world; Balthasar (1964) comprehensively reviewed the Palaearctic and Oriental fauna; Gemminger & Harold (1869) provided the first world catalogue; and Schmidt (1910b) produced the Aphodiinae part of the Coleopterorum Catalogus.

The Australian fauna presently comprises 29 genera and 182 species. Several publications on the Australian Aphodiinae have appeared recently in which three new tribes (Odontolochini, Proctophanini and Stereomerini), six new genera and 79 new species are described, while Acrossidius Schmidt, Drepanocanthoides Schmidt and Podotenus Schmidt are raised to generic status. Howden & Storey (1992) erected a new tribe Stereomerini to accommodate a few highly modified aphodiines suspected of being termitophiles, redefining the tribe Rhyparini in the process. Storey & Howden (1996) revised Australoxenella, describing nine new species, while Howden & Storey (2000) erected Daintreeola for a new species of Wet Tropics aphodiine. The Australian fauna has been monographed recently by Stebnicka & Howden (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997). The first decribed species was Aphodius tibialis Fabricius, 1798. Hope (1847) described five species and Macleay (1871, 1888) described eight species. Blackburn (1891, 1892a, 1892b, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1904) described 36 new species and, in his 1904 paper, gave a key to the genera of Australian aphodiines as well as keys to the species of Aphodius Harold and several other genera. Lea (1923) proposed 30 new species but did not provide any diagnostic keys. Petrovitz (1958, 1961, 1963a, 1963b, 1964a, 1964b, 1967, 1971, 1975) described 30 new species based on material in the European museums. Rakovic (1981, 1983, 1984) revised the Psammodiini, raising Leiopsammodius Rakovic to generic level (Rakovic 1986) and excluding Odochilus Harold from the Australian fauna (Rakovic 1987). Dellacasa & Johnson (1983) excluded Aphodius analis (Fabricius), the only representative of the subgenus Aphodius (Teuchestes) listed from Australia. This subgenus, therefore, recorded from the Palaearctic, Afrotropical and Oriental Regions, is not known to be represented in Australia.

The Aphodiinae are widely distributed in Australia but species attracted to dung appear to be less abundant in dense forest habitats (Doube et al. 1991). In south-western Australia, the number of individuals of the aphodiine species attracted to dung were 20 to 40 times more abundant in open forests (jarrah) and heath than in tall open forests (karri) (Ridsdill Smith et al. 1983).

The phytophagous species Acrossidius tasmaniae and A. pseudotasmaniae are important pests of pastures and lawns in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. The dung feeding species can be considered beneficial as they assist in the disposal of animal dung (Britton 1970).

Diagnosis

The Australian Aphodiinae adults, which range in size from 2 to 10 mm, are black or brown in colour, but the introduced Aphodius (Aphodius) fimetarius (Linnaeus) is black and red. Adults can be separated from the other subfamilies of Scarabaeidae by a combination of the following characters: tarsae of equal length; elytra cover the abdomen and without narrow margin; abdominal spiracles located in pleural membrane and covered by elytra; midcoxae strongly oblique and separated by less than their width; scutellum present (minute to not visible in Rhyparini); labrum concealed or only slightly exposed; and hind tibia with two apical spurs (reduced in size or only one in some Rhyparini) (Lawrence & Britton 1991).

The larvae can be separated from other scarabaeoids by the possession of four or apparently five segmented antennae with reduced apical segment (at most half as wide as penultimate); distinctly separated galea and lacinia; anal opening usually surrounded by fleshy lobes; five segmented legs each with a well developed claw; a dark brown head capsule; and a body which is not hump-backed (Ritcher 1966). Carne (1957) described the immature stages of Acrossidius tasmaniae Hope.

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