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Type genus. Aegialia Latreille 1807

Diagnosis. Small body size, length of most less than 5 mm. Head flat or slightly convex, surface granulate or punctate. Mandibles and labrum not covered by the clypeus.

Composition. Worldwide, there are approximately 8 genera and 65 species in the Aegialiini. In the New World there are 5 genera and 36 species. The majority of these species are found in North America, with three species, representing three different genera, found in southern South America.

Genera of World Aegialiinae (click on underlined generic names for information):
Aegialia Latreille 1807
Amerisaprus Stebnicka and Skelley 2003
Argeremazus Stebnicka and Dellacasa 2003
Caelius Lewis 1895                 
Micraegialia Brown 1931                 
Rhysothorax Bedel 1911
Saprus Blackburn 1904 (not New World)
Silluvia Landin 1949 (not New World)

Distribution. Primarily boreal, with a few members in Australia and southern South America.

Life history. Where known or suspected, members of the Aegialiinae appear to be psammophiles or detritivores in leaf litter.

Status of Classification. The recent Palaearctic Catalog (Löbl and Smetana 2006) lists several of the above genera as subgenera of Aegialia (Aegialia, Caelius, Rhysothorax). As with the Aphodiini, genus-level taxa within the Aegialiini seem to change with every publication. I choose to follow the classification as presented in Stebnicka et al. (2004).

References.
Gordon, R. D., and O.L. Cartwright. 1988. North American representatives of the tribe Aegialiini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 461: 1-37.
Löbl, I. and A. Smetana (eds.). 2006. Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera, Vol. 3. Senstrup, Apollo Books, 690 pp.
Stebnicka, Z. T. 1977. A revision of the world species of the tribe Aegialiini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae). Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia 22(11): 397‑506.
Stebnicka, Z. T., M. Dellacasa, and P. E. Skelley. 2004. Review of the New World Aegialiini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae), with the description of two new genera from South America. Insecta Mundi [2003] 17(1-2): 73-83.

Authors: Paul E. Skelley
Generated on: 13/MAY/2008.....Last modified: 13/MAY/2008
University of Nebraska State Museum - Division of Entomology