Geotrupidae
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Scarabaeiformia
Superfamily: Scarabaeoidea
Family: Geotrupidae Latreille, 1802

[Photo] Geotrupes stercorarius; taken in Poland 2005 by M. Betley (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Dixi). It's Anoplotrupes stercorosus --Vitalfranz 10:37, 20 October 2007 (UTC). URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Geotrupes_stercorarius.jpg

Geotrupidae (from Greek geos, earth, and trypetes, borer), the dor beetles or earth-boring dung beetles, are a family of beetles. Most known species excavate burrows in which to lay their eggs. They are typically detrivores, provisioning their nests with leaf litter (often moldy), but are occasionally coprophagous, similar to dung beetles. The eggs are laid in or upon the provision mass and buried, and the developing larvae feed upon the provisions. The burrows of some species can exceed 2 meters in depth.

A few species communicate by stridulation (rubbing body parts together to make sounds).

Classification
They were originally classified as the subfamily Geotrupinae in the family Scarabaeidae before being elevated to a family. Traditionally the family Bolboceratidae was included (as the subfamily Bolboceratinae) on the basis of the number of antenna segments, but examination of a different set of characteristics prompted Scholtz & Browne (1995) to elevate Bolboceratidae to a family.

The family has more than 600 species in about 25 genera in three subfamilies.

Geotrupinae
Anoplotrupes
Blackburnium
Ceratophyus Fischer von Waldheim, 1823
Cnemotrupes
Elaphastomus
Enoplotrupes
Eogeotrupes
Geohowdenius
Geotrupes Latreille, 1796
Glyptogeotrupes
Haplogeotrupes
Indobolbus
Megatrupes
Mycotrupes LeConte, 1866
Odontaeus
Onthotrupes
Pachypus
Peltotrupes Blanchard 1888
Sericotrupes
Stenaspidius
Thorectes
Trypocopris
Typhaeus
Taurocerastinae
Frickius
Taurocerastes
Lethrinae
Lethrus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotrupidae

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