Scarabaeus sacer

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Ordo: Coleoptera
Subordo: Polyphaga
Infraordo: Scarabaeiformia
Superfamilia: Scarabaeoidea

Familia: Scarabaeidae
Subfamilia: Scarabaeinae
Tribus: Scarabaeini
Genus: Scarabaeus
Subgenus: Scarabaeus
Species: Scarabaeus sacer
Name

Scarabaeus sacer Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms

Scarabaeus crenatus De Geer, 1778
Ateuchus impius Fabricius, 1801
Scarabaeus degeeri MacLeay, 1821
Scarabaeus dufresneri Macleay, 1821
Scarabaeus spencei MacLeay, 1821
Scarabaeus platychilus Fischer von Waldheim, 1823
Ateuchus retusus Brullé, 1832
Scarabaeus edentulus Mulsant, 1842
Scarabaeus inermis Mulsant, 1842
Scarabaeus europaeus Motschulsky, 1849
Scarabaeus peregrinus Kolbe, 1886
Scarabaeus rufipes Seabra, 1907
Scarabaeus confluidens Fleischer, 1925

Primary references

Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio Decima, Reformata. Tomus I. Holmiæ (Stockholm): impensis direct. Laurentii Salvii. 824 pp. DOI: 10.5962/bhl.title.542 BHL Reference page. [first availability, see p. 347]

References

Lobo, J.M.; Guéorguiev, B.V.; Chehlarov, E.I. 2011: The species of Scarabaeus Linnaeus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in Bulgaria and adjacent regions: faunal review and potential distribution. Entomologica fennica 21(4): 202–220. abstract and full article (PDF) Reference page.
Zídek, J. & Pokorný, S. 2008: Illustrated keys to Palearctic Scarabaeus Linné (Scarabaeidae). animma.x, (27): 1-28. full issue (PDF) Reference page.
Fleischer 1925: Coleopterologicke vyzkumy. Acta Societatis Entomologicae Cechoslovenicae, 22 1925: pp. 20-21.
Scarabaeus sacer L., 1758 (Scarabaeidae, Col.) from deity to realty.
Identification of the cues used in the host finding behavior during the phoretic association Ceroptera rufitarsis (Diptera: Sphaeroceridae) and dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae).
[A surprising finding of a species of dung beetle in The Netherlands.]
Evidence of Different Thermoregulatory Mechanisms between Two Sympatric Scarabaeus Species Using Infrared Thermography and Micro-Computer Tomography.
New record of Eviphis cultratellus (Acari: Eviphididae) associated with Scarabaeus sacer L. (Col.: Scarabaeidae) from Iran.
Notes on the layer-moustached of the Armenian SSR fauna (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae).
Faunistic records from the Carpathian Basin (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea).
Supplemental comments on Scarabaeus Linne (Scarabaeinae: Scarabaeini).

Selected links

AnimalBase
image of adult
Lifedesks
Scarabaeus sacer Taxon details on Fauna Europaea

Vernacular names
български: Свещен скарабей
čeština: Vruboun posvátný
Deutsch: Heiliger Pillendreher
English: sacred scarab
español: Escarabajo sacer
euskara: Kakalardo sakratu
français: Bousier sacré
हिन्दी: गोबरैला
Nederlands: Heilige pillenkever, heilige pillendraaier
português: Escaravelho-sagrado
русский: Священный скарабей
slovenčina: Skarabeus posvätný

Scarabaeus sacer, common name sacred scarab,[1] is the type species of dung beetles in its genus and the family Scarabaeidae.

Taxonomy

Scarabaeus sacer was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, the starting point of zoological nomenclature. It is considered the type species of the genus Scarabaeus, despite some controversy surrounding Latreille's 1810 type designation,[2] which was resolved by a ruling of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature in 2014, to accept Hope's 1837 designation of S. sacer as the type rather than Latreille's 1810 designation (of Dynastes hercules).OPINION 2344 (Case 3590): Scarabaeus Linnaeus, 1758, Dynastes MacLeay, 1819, SCARABAEINAE Latreille, 1802 and DYNASTINAE MacLeay, 1819 (Insecta, Coleoptera, SCARABAEOIDEA): usage conserved
Distribution and habitat

Scarabaeus sacer occurs in coastal dunes and marshes around the Mediterranean Basin. It can be found across North Africa, southern Europe and parts of Asia (Afghanistan, Corsica, Cyprus, Ethiopia, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Sardinia, Sicily, Sudan and Syria).[3][4] In the Camargue, Scarabaeus sacer is almost exclusively a coastal species, living only in dunes and coastal marshes.[5]
Scarabaeus sacer. Mounted specimen
Description

The head of Scarabaeus sacer has a distinctive array of six projections, resembling rays.[6] The projections are uniform with four more projections on each of the tibiae of the front legs, creating an arc of fourteen "rays" (see illustration). Functionally the projections are adaptations for digging and for shaping the ball of dung.

Like the front legs of other beetles of its genus, but unlike those of dung beetles in most other genera, the front legs of Scarabaeus sacer are unusual; they do not end in any recognisable tarsus, the foot that bears the claws.[7] There is only a vestigial claw-like structure that might be of some assistance in digging. The mid- and hind-legs of Scarabaeus have normal, well-developed 5-segmented tarsi, but the front legs are specialised for excavation and for forming balls of dung.
Life cycle and ecology
Scarabaeus sacer rolling a ball of dung

Among the coprophagous species of beetles, Scarabaeus sacer is typical of those that collect dung into balls. Such a beetle rolls its ball to a suitable location, where it digs an underground chamber in which it hides the ball. It then eats the ball itself, a process that may take several days.

When the female is ready to breed she selects especially fine-textured dung to make her breeding ball, and digs an especially deep and large chamber for it. There she sculpts it into a pear-shape with a hollow cavity in the narrow part. In that cavity she lays a single large egg. She then seals the cavity and departs to repeat the process elsewhere. Typically a successful female Scarabaeus sacer will produce only about half a dozen young in her life.[8] The larva feeds on the ball of dung after the egg hatches.

Scarabaeus sacer serves as the host for the phoretic mite Macrocheles saceri.[9]
Human significance
Carved relief of the cartouche representing Thutmose III on the wall of the Precinct of Amun-Re, Karnak

Scarabaeus sacer is the most famous of the scarab beetles.[10] To the Ancient Egyptians, S. sacer was a symbol of Khepri, the early morning manifestation of the sun god Ra, from an analogy between the beetle's behaviour of rolling a ball of dung across the ground and Khepri's task of rolling the sun across the sky.[11] They accordingly held the species to be sacred.[12]

The Egyptians also observed young beetles emerging from the ball of dung, from which they mistakenly inferred that the male beetle was able to reproduce without needing a female, simply by injecting his sperm into the ball of dung. From this, they drew parallels with their god Atum, who also begat children alone.[11]

Scarabaeus sacer was the species which first piqued the interest of William Sharp Macleay and drew him into a career in entomology.[13]
See also

Scarab in Ancient Egypt
Scarab (artifact)
Commemorative scarabs of Amenhotep III

References

http://carnivoraforum.com/topic/9699850/1/
Tristão Branco (2007). "Scarabaeoidea (Coleoptera) of Portugal: genus-group names and their type species" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1453: 1–31. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1453.1.1.
Zicha, Ondrej. "BioLib: Biological library". www.biolib.cz.
"Scarabaeidae. Scarab beetles; Scarabs; Dung beetles; Flower beetles; Rain beetles; Tumblebugs". Discover Life. Retrieved November 10, 2010.
Jorge Miguel Lobo; Jean-Pierre Lumaret & Pierre Jay-Robert (2001). "Diversity, distinctiveness and conservation status of the Mediterranean coastal dung beetle assemblage in the Regional Natural Park of the Camargue (France)" (PDF). Diversity and Distributions. 7 (6): 257–270. doi:10.1046/j.1366-9516.2001.00122.x.
George Long, ed. (1836). "On the sacred animals of Egypt". The British Museum: Egyptian antiquities, Volume 2. Knight. pp. 286–319.
Arrow, Gilbert John, 1873-1948. Coleoptera: Lamellicornia part 1. Publisher: London, Taylor and Francis. 1910. Download from: [1]
Fabre, J. Henri. "Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos; The Sacred Beetle and Others. Dodd, Mead, New York, 1918".
G. W. Krantz (1998). "Reflections on the biology, morphology and ecology of the Macrochelidae". Experimental and Applied Acarology. 22 (3): 125–137. doi:10.1023/A:1006097811592. PMID 9519465. S2CID 29284819.
Maurice Burton & Robert Burton (2002). "Scarab beetle". Volume 16. The International Wildlife Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). Marshall Cavendish. pp. 2252–2254. ISBN 978-0-7614-7282-7.
Pat Remler (2010). "Scarab beetle". Egyptian Mythology A to Z (3rd ed.). Infobase Publishing. pp. 169–171. ISBN 978-1-60413-926-6.
Eggleton, Paul (2020). "The State of the World's Insects". Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 45: 61–82. doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-012420-050035.
Robert Patterson (1838). "Letter V. Order Coleoptera". Letters on the natural history of the insects mentioned in Shakspeare's plays, with incidental notices of the entomology of Ireland. W. S. Orr & Co. pp. 63–76.