digging beetle with parasites?
Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 8:06 PM
The beetle pictured is quite large and heavy. It is common during certain months in Coto Brus which is about 1100 meters altitude on the Pacific slopes of Talamanca Mts. in southern Costa Rica. This one was on its back and was apparently infested with what look like ticks. I didn’t know ticks parasitised insects. Could you please confirm both the name of the beetle and the creatures in ventral view that appear to be parasites? Third try.
Mary Thorman
highland rainforest sw Costa Rica

Dung Beetle

Hi Mary,
Thanks for your persistence. Sadly, we just don’t have time to answer all the letters that we receive. This is some type of Scarab Beetle, probably one of the Dung Beetles. The parasites are Mites. Many Mites are parasitic, but there are also Mites that use flying insects for transportation. These opportunistic Mites often nearly cover certain beetles, most notably Burying Beetles. In the case of the Burying Beetles, the Mites feed on Maggots that infest the carrion that the Burying Beetles lay their eggs upon. That is a symbiotic relationship. The Mites are transported to a new food supply, and the progeny of the Burying Beetles don’t have to compete with the Maggots for a food supply. If this is a Dung Beetle as we suspect, the mites may be using the beetle for transportation, but we suspect, because of their location, that they may be parasitic. We would really need an expert opinion on this matter.

Dung Beetle with Mites: Passengers

Letter from the previous day with additional information
Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 8:14 PM parasitic arthropods on beetle
Hi, again! I thought I had sent pictures of this large beetle with what appear to be parasites infesting it. Are the smaller “bugs” on the ventral surface of the beetle ticks? They are very tiny, but . . . kind of icky. And can you help me identify the beetle. They are common during certain times of the year here in the highland rainforests of Costa Rica. They are attracted to lights at night and often bash into window with a loud “bam!” If I go outside I can collect a few to feed to my coatimundi the next day.
Mary Thorman
1100 – 1200 meters altitude, southwestern Costa Rica

Update: From Eric Eaton
Daniel:
The Costa Rican dung beetle is probably in the genus Dichotomius (we have at least one species in the U.S.). Those are indeed phoretic (hitchhiking) mites on it.
Eric

Update: Costa Rican Dung Beetle with Phoretic Mites
Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 11:58 AM
Hi Daniel:
Further to Eric’s comments, there are several species of Dichotomius in Costa Rica; D. annae appears to be a very close match. A brown coloration in the posterior portion of the striations on the elytra is characteristic of the species. This feature seems evident in Mary’s photo, although it looks confusingly like the dirt on other parts of the beetle. Regards.
Karl

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Dung beetle
Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 8:28 AM
Photographed in the Langeberg Range in South Africa in montane fynbos ecosystem. Photo is attached
Brett
Langeberg Range in South Africa

Dung Beetle

Hi Brett,
On a good day, we have time to post a few letters before work and possibly a few more after work. We seem to keep choosing your letters because you have such great subject lines. Thanks for enlightening our readership on the appearance of a South African Dung Beetle.

Uh oh, I’m not sure how to interpret this but it sounds like you’re mad
at me and saying – gee, it’s a dung beetle. Maybe (hopefully) I’m
misreading your response. I didn’t mean to offend by submitting a number
of items at once. I’m a nature photographer and I always try to write
accurate and specific IDs for the species I photograph. There are a
number if very similar looking dung bettles here and I couldn’t figure
out what it was. Sorry if I goofed somehow. I do appreciate the help
very much.
Brett

My my no Brett.  You have misread the intent in the short response.
Seriously, when choosing letters, welook at interesting subject lines
since we can’t read them all.  Your letters have had such interesting
subject lines that wechose many of them to read and post.  As you may realize, South Africa does not have many insect sources available on the
internet, so we are unable to identify the exact species.  Please don’t
get the wrong impression. Wecould add general information on
the posting about Dung Beetles. Your submissions have been perfect with only one image per email.  You would be surprised at the number of requests we receive that just say identify our bugs with 10 different images attached.
Have a wonderful day.

Great, I get stressed out when I think people are mad at me. I do
really appreciate the help. I’ll post a gallery for you sometime of all
of the very strange insects I’ve photographed in tropical rainforests
(all are ID’ed already). I’ve got a lot of stuff that you guys would
probably find very interesting. I’ve done a lot of shooting in Costa
Rica and some in the Peruvian Amazon. I did the official photo book on
the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica, where I think they
estimate they have 25,000 insects. I have some crazy stuff from there.
I’m in South Africa now photographing baboons.
Thanks,
Brett

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Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 8:25 AM
I JUST MADE A DONATION
Photographed in the Langeberg Range in South Africa in montane fynbos ecosystem. Photo is attached
Brett
Langeberg Range in South Africa

Flower Scarabs

Hi Again Brett,
Thanks for the donation. As you may realize, we are a very small operation and we cannot post nor answer every letter that is submitted to our site. We believe these are some species of Flower Scarab in the tribe Trichiini or at least in the Subfamily Cetoniinae , but we don’t have access to many guides of South African insects, so exact identification is beyond our capabilities. You can search the North American BugGuide section on Trichiini to get additional information.

Update:
Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 4:23 PM
Hi Daniel:
These look like Monkey Beetles (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Hopliini), which occur almost exclusively in South Africa. They are pollen feeders and important pollinators. Atypically for beetles, Monkey Beetles are attracted to host flowers visually, not by scent, and they have co-evolved a very close relationship with a number of plant species. Many host plants rely almost exclusively on these beetles for pollination, in some cases on a single beetle species. Host flowers are typically bright yellow, orange or red and many have ‘beetle marks’, distinctive color marks that have been shown to attract Monkey Beetles. Many species are gregarious and aggregations (as in Brett’s photo) are common. As a group, Monkey Beetles are surprisingly diverse given their limited range, and I was not able to make a more precise identification. Regards.
Karl

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