Africa Wild

Then you are very lucky

You found a dung beetle that can perceive the milky way to find its way around

Most exciting, do you know now?

I'll have to go find some info. on it....or wait for yours.

Scarabaeus satyrus, uses light from the Milky Way to orient itself.

And it looks very much like this species, fits into the distribution, is reported from KTP. And there are not many nocturnal species in that area.

What do you think?

Let me read further, and will get back. Sounds VERY intriguing!

DungBeetleMAP — Atlas of Dung Beetles in southern Africa.
31 species found for Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

these are the spp listed there

Catharsius melancholicus 1 1 1990-02-15
Cheironitis audens 1 1 1990-03-27
Euonthophagus flavimargo 2 2 1988-04-07
Gymnopleurus asperrimus 2 3 1994-01-18
Gymnopleurus humanus 2 2 1994-01-18
Gymnopleurus humeralis 1 1 1990-03-27
Metacatharsius anderseni 1 4 1988-12-22
Metacatharsius dentinum 2 3 1990-03-27
Metacatharsius exiguiformis 3 6 1990-03-27
Metacatharsius marani 4 6 1988-01-23
Onthophagus acutus 2 5 1990-03-28
Onthophagus bicavifrons 1 1 1990-03-28
Onthophagus convexus 2 5 1990-03-27
Onthophagus granulifer 1 3 1988-04-07
Onthophagus pallidipennis 2 2 1990-03-27
Onthophagus probus 2 3 1990-03-27
Onthophagus rubens 1 1 1988-02-17
Onthophagus semiflavus 1 3 1990-03-27
Onthophagus signatus 4 12 1997-11-20
Phalops rufosignatus 1 2 1990-03-27
Phalops wittei 1 3 1990-03-27
Pycnopanelus krikkeni 2 3 1990-03-27
Sarophorus costatus 1 1 1983-03-15
Scarabaeus anderseni 1 1 1990-02-15
Scarabaeus flavicornis 1 1 1980-01-07
Scarabaeus kalaharicus 2 3 2006-11-02
Scarabaeus parvulus 2 3 1990-02-15
Scarabaeus proboscideus 5 8 1990-03-27
Scarabaeus satyrus 3 4 1990-03-28
Sisyphus gazanus 1 1 1985-03-15

S. satyrus and S. flavicornis are nocturnal

Otherwise they look more or less alike.

Here some photos with a similar angle than yours

http://vmus.adu.org.za/vm_view_record.p ... 86&recNo=4


http://vmus.adu.org.za/vm_view_record.p ... 03&recNo=5

Re: Which dung beetle?


KTP
As you said, they are both from that area, and are nocturnal. Which one, I don't know. Perhaps my photo doesn't show angles/features to distinguish the two. S. flav. looks to be more "punctuated/indented", like mine, but that may be a very variable characteristic. Also, if one "zoomed in", S.satyrus would also show more "punctuations". ?

Maybe write it up as S. species, possibly S.satyrus or S.flavicornis???

I see they used S.satyrus in the Milky Way study, but I suppose, being nocturnal it also applies to S. flav.? What a really cool study!
Thanks so much for bringing it to my, and everyone's attention.

Maybe I'll post a brief synopsis of the findings in the Interesting or Unusual Behavior Topic tomorrow.

The pinned specimen are sometimes missleading, because of colours and hairs


So I did another search on inaturalist and am now convinced that it is S. flavicornis, S. satyrus is rather bare on the face and pronotum

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/688371 ... wse_photos

another dead one, but still hairy
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/549131 ... wse_photos


This one matches perfectly ExFmem's, I think

Amazing when you see the details. The "hairs" on the front legs are used for combing the eyes and antennae.

The lateral body hairs must have a purpose, too don't know, but maybe to keep out the soil and sand, otherwise it might enter the body cavity

The 4 teeth on the legs are for digging - these guys are rollers and must dig burrows for the brood balls.