Finely-lined Carcass Beetle
S1, Anterior
Finely-lined Carcass Beetle
S1, Legs
| Finely-lined Carcass Beetle S1, Anterior | | Finely-lined Carcass Beetle S1, Legs | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Beetles (Coleoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Gnawer Beetle (Trogidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Finely-lined Carcass Beetle (Omorgus sp ES05) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍S2, anterior🔎 | ||||
Thank you Paul M Hutchinson for identifying and Kurtise Templeton (NutsAboutNature) for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere ~16mm long We thought this might be Omorgus perhispidus but Paul said "Omorgus perhispidius has distinct long setae on side of pronotum and does not obtain 16mm.", so not a match for this species. Further, in reference to Trogidae generally Paul said "Trogidae in Australia is composed of 1 introduced Trox and the remaining are in the Genus Omorgus. Trox has the scutellum "U" shaped whereas Omorgus are hastate "arrow-head" shaped. Within Omorgus there are 3 distinct groups. First the large flightless species which have fused elytra. They are usually quite localised and not often encountered. There are appx 10 species mostly represented in WA and are of special interest to me and hopefully will publish on them. The second group have unfused elytra, but due to reduced hind wings are most likely flightless. There are 9 species. I have little knowledge as mostly eastern States species and I have no representative specimens. The third and most common are the group that is capable of flight, and are attracted to light. There are 37 species. Adults and larva can be found under carcasses (old dried). Scholtz revised the Australian Trogidae in 1986 with appx 6 species described since. The key mainly utilises characters of the legs, head, pronotum and particularly elytra. The key is difficult to use, and I have found it necessary to extract genitalia to confirm species, particularly for species in group 2. This only works for males. External sexual characters are not mentioned by Scholtz. A subsequent paper on Scarabaeoidea suggests a difference in angle of abdominal sternite 2. I have determined distinct external sexual character in 2 species only, thus generally external variation in tubercles is not an indication of gender. As there are several species that are very similar, particularly in group 3 I do no recommend relying on available image for identification purposes. The available images do not represent all species (appx 10 of 50) AND the diagnostic characters are not mentioned." | |||||
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