Aegialia arenaria (Fabricius 1787)

Plant / resting place / among
Aegialia arenaria may be found among bases of Magnoliopsida

Aegialia (Aegialia) arenaria (Fabricius)

Scarabaeus arenarius Fabricius, 1787:11

Aphodius arenarius—Fabricius, 1801:82

Psammodius arenarius—Gyllenhal, 1808:6

Aegialia arenaria—Erichson, 1848:919—Darlington, 1927:98

Aegialia (Aegialia) arenaria—Brown, 1931:49—Landin, 1956:223—Stebnicka, 1977:460—Gordon and Cartwright, 1977:43

Scarabaeus globosus Kugelann, 1794:514

Aphodius globosus—Illiger, 1801:20

Aegialia globosa—Latreille, 1807:97

DESCRIPTION—Length 450 to 60 mm, width 275 to 310 mm Form oval, robust, strongly convex, widest in apical half of elytra (Figure 14) Color dark brown to black except prosternum, mesosternum, leg reddish brown Head densely granulate, lacking punctations; clypeal apex broadly emarginate, gena not or slightly produced Pronotum feebly alutaceous, essentially impunctate, punctations on disc fine, barely perceptible; base lacking marginal line except on each side of middle Elytron smooth with interval feebly convex, impunctate, stria feebly impressed, impunctate Metasternum polished, impunctate medially Functional wings present Middle tibia short, with surface denticles in basal third, transverse carina nearly complete, apical spurs slender, outer spur as long as basal 3 tarsal segments, inner spur as long as basal 4 tarsal segments; hindfemur with apical flange produced, inner angle obsolete; hindtibia short, robust, surface denticles dense with a row of denticles on inner margin from base to apex, complete transverse carina in apical third, apical spurs short, spatulate (Figure 70), extending slightly beyond 2nd tarsal segment Male genitalia as in Figure 48; female genital plate as figured by Stebnicka (1977, fig 89)

TYPE LOCALITY—“Suecica” (lectotype designated by Landin, 1956)

TYPE DEPOSITORY—Zoological Museum, Kiel (type not examined)

REMARKS—This is a European species first reported from North America by Darlington (1927) that is established in a few Atlantic Coast localities

NORTH AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION—Canada, Nova Scotia: Sable Island USA, Massachusetts: Ipswich New Hampshire: Hampton Beach

Aegialia arenaria, the dune scarab beetle, is a species of beetle in the family Scarabaeidae. It is found in the Palearctic and Nearctic. It is a coastal species found on sand dunes of western and northern Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, France (Nord-Pas-de-Calais), Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland) and in the Nearctic from Nova Scotia in Canada (Sable Island), to Massachusetts and New Hampshire.