.......Aegidium Westwood, 1846

Major male Aegidium sp.	Minor male Aegidium sp.
Female Aegidium sp. Note that the mandibles are extended in this picture.
Photos by: Julia Colby
Distribution: Neotropical realm. Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Vincent, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia.
Description: Length 9-21 mm. Anterior edge of pronotum produced into median anterior boss or horn (males) or not (females). Male majors with erect horns on sides of pronotum; horns subtriangular to triangular, projecting 90° from plane of disc, widely separated, slightly recurved at apices; minor males with horns reduced to rounded tubercles. Area between horns usually slightly depressed in some. Females and minor males with shallow, median groove or fovea on pronotum. Elytra with raised, convex intervals.
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Biology: Life history is largely unknown. Adults of Aegidium cribratum Bateshave been reported feeding on decaying banana stems and have been found in soil under rotting logs (Morón 1991).
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Larvae: Larvae:  Morón (1991) described the third instar larvae and the pupae of Aegidium cribratum.

Revision or Synopsis:
Paulian, R.1984. Les Orphnidae Américains (Coléoptères, Scarabaeiodea). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (N.S) 20:65-92.

Composition: 12 species.

Species:
Aegidium colombianum  Westwood, 1846
Aegidium minor Paulian, 1984
Aegidium geayi Paulian, 1984
Aegidium squamatum  Bates, 1887
Aegidium borrei Paulian, 1984
Aegidium asperatum Preudhomme de Borre, 1886
Aegidium elongatum Paulian, 1984
Aegidium cribratum Bates, 1887
Aegidium reichei Preudhomme de Borre, 1886
Aegidium parvulum Westwood 1846
Aegidium vincentiae Arrow, 1903
Aegidium dominicense Cartwright and Chalumeau, 1977

References:
Arrow, G. J. 1903. On the laparostict lamellicorn Coleoptera of Grenada and St. Vincent (W. Indies). Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 51:509-520.

Bates, H. W. 1887. Pectinicornia and Lamellicornia. Insecta: Coleoptera. Orphninae. pp 105-108. In Salvin, O. and F.D. Godwin (eds.), Biologia Centrali- Americana. Insecta, Coleoptera, Vol. 2 Part 2. 432 pp.

Chalumeau, F. E. 1977. Les scarabées (Insectes, Coléoptères) des îles de l’arc Antillais s’éntendant de Guadeloupe à Martinique (Taxonomie, éthologie, biogeographie). Pointe-à-Pitre.230pp.

Morón, M. A. 1991. Larva and pupa of Aegidium cribratum Bates (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Orphnidae). The Coleopterists Bulletin 45:360-371.

Paulian, R.1984. Les Orphnidae Américains (Coléoptères, Scarabaeiodea). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (N.S) 20:65-92.

Preudhomme de Borre. A. 1886. Descriptions de deux espéces nouvelles du genre Aegidium Westwood suives de la liste des Orphnides du Musée Royal d’Histoire Naturelle de Belgique. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique 30:24-26.

Westwood, J. O. 1846. On the lamellicorn beetles which possess exserted mandibles and labrum, and 10 jointed antennæ. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 4:155-180.