yellow shouldered dung beetle
Family: Scarabaeidae Subfamily: Scarabaeinae Genus: Oniticellus Species: Oniticellus militaris (Laporte [Comte de Castelnau], 1840)
none available
Total body length 7.0–11.0 cm (0.27–0.43 in). Body oblong oval, somewhat dorsoventrally compressed; may be caked in dung. Color dark brown; pronotum bordered with tan; elytra with longitudinal tan stripes (some broken). Head of male with short horn, female with distinct transverse ridge near base. Pronotum with weak longitudinal median line; anterior margin with excisions paired at middle, excision reduced in female. Front tibia of female slightly more robust than in male.
Undescribed. For Oniticellus spp. (Ritcher, 1966): Grub C-shaped, with projecting hump, cylindrical, whitish. Maxilla with galea and lacinia distinctly separated. Epipharynx with tormae united mesally, anterior phoba present. Antennae with 4 segments; distal segment of antenna much reduced in size. Legs 2-segmented. Prothoracic shield without anteriorly projecting processes. Third abdominal segment without a prominent, conical, dorsal gibbosity. Venter of last abdominal segment with 2 patches of short, spine-like setae.
Africa. This species is native to eastern Africa, ranging from Ethiopia southward to South Africa. It has been introduced to Australia (Tyndale-Biscoe, 1990).
None. Oniticellus spp. feed on dung as both adults and larvae.
(Tyndale-Biscoe, 1990): This diurnal species is a dung tunneler, with females constructing a burrow 0–15 cm (0–5.9 in) beneath a dung source. The burrow is stocked with dung to form a brood ball in which one egg is laid. The larva develops within its brood ball and will remain within the burrow until emerging as an adult.
None. This species recycles dung and is beneficial for ranching and farming in Hawaii. Being a dung feeder, this species poses no threat to crop or ornamental plants. Additionally, this species is not a threat to native dung beetles because none are known from Hawaii or Guam.
Established. This species was intentionally released in 1957-1958 on Big Island and Oahu (Markin and Yoshioka, 1998). It is also found on Kauai and Maui (Nishida, 2002), although it is unclear when the beetle arrived to those islands.
Not established or recorded. There are no records of this species from Guam.
In Hawaii, this species was intentionally released.
Oniticellus militaris is one of two Oniticellus species known from Hawaii, the other being Oniticellus cinctus. The two scarabs are separated by examining the head armature (the male of O. militaris possesses a short horn and the female has a distinct transverse ridge versus O. cinctus that lacks horns or distinct ridges in both sexes), color of the pronotum (O. militaris possesses a dark brown pronotum bordered in tan, whereas O. cinctus has a shiny black pronotum), and pronotal form (O. militaris has anterior margin with paired excisions versus O. cinctus with anterior margin smooth, without excisions).
Liatongus militaris Laporte (Comte de Castelau), Oniticellus quadrituberculatus Lansberge
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