Coptodactyla

Male Coptodactyla glabricollis, from Darko D. Cotoras and John J. McCormack.

Belongs within: Scarabaeinae.

Coptodactyla is an Australasian genus of relatively large dung beetles lacking tarsi on the fore legs.

Characters (from Matthews 1976): Oblong, feebly to strongly convex, largely glabrous. Entirely piceous, antennal clubs fuscous or rufous. Total length 9-18 mm. Head about 1.5-2 times as wide as long, genal angles obtuse. Clypeal margin feebly to distinctly bidentate medially. Edges usually with marginal beading. Clypeal suture effaced for all or most of its length, sometimes laterally carinate. Armament of frontal region very variable. Eyes large, their dorsal areas wide, separated by 5-7 widths, their ventral areas globose. End of canthus remote from occipital margin. Underside of clypeus with two transverse ridges before mouthparts. Labium transverse, deeply emarginate anteriorly and impunctate medially, with a fringe of long setae along anterior margin and others along sides. Labial palpi suboval, the second larger than the first, the third smallest but distinct, not minute. Demarcation between gula and submentum more or less transverse. Antennae with nine segments, the club of normal size. Pronotum moderately to strongly convex, often armed in male, with a carina often running from lateral margin to lateral fossa (lateral carina). Deflexed (ventral) areas of pronotum somewhat excavated anteriorly but not receiving fore femora, the excavation bordered posteriorly by a complete oblique carina joining coxal cavities with lateral margins, posterior surface of deflexed area with a longitudinal carina issuing from posterior edge and running forward for about half of prothoracic length or more, more or less parallel to lateral edge. Prosternum with hind edge medially angulate. Tip of scutellum visible between elytral bases. Mesosternum about 3.5–4 times as wide as long at widest point, mesometasternal suture feebly procurved or nearly straight. Median lobe of metasternum wide, only about 1.5 times as long as wide, middle coxal cavities subparallel, finely margined. Underside variously punctate or cicatricose, glabrous. Elytra with 10 striae including one along epipleural margin, of which the eighth is occasionally effaced anteriorly, the ninth well separated from the tenth for anterior third (rarely partly or wholly effaced here), then abruptly confluent with tenth for posterior two-thirds. Striae distinct, variously punctate. Intervals feebly convex, the ninth rarely carinate. Epipleura narrow. Hind wings always fully developed. Legs with fore tarsi absent. Fore spur movable, long in young individuals but quickly worn. Outer edge of fore tibia with three distinct teeth, the distal edge transversely truncate when not modified in male. Middle and hind trochanters with a brush of setae on hind edge. Middle and hind tibiae strongly expanded distally, with a transverse carina on outer face. Distal edges strongly scalloped. Two long, strong terminal spurs of unequal length on middle tibiae and one on hind. Middle and hind tarsi short, segments subtriangular and of decreasing size distally, last segment slender and a little shorter than preceding two combined. Claws small, moderately curved, simple. Abdomen. Sternites strongly contracted medially, fused. Pygidium transverse, strongly and completely margined, simple, the margin set off by a fine deep groove all around disc. Parameres of aedeagus symmetrical.

<==Coptodactyla Burmeister 1846 [incl. Boucomontia Paulian 1933] CW92
    |--*C. glabricollis (Hope 1842) [=Copris glabricollis; incl. Copt. baileyi Blackburn 1890] CW92
    |--C. brooksi Matthews 1976 CW92
    |--C. depressa Paulian 1933 [=C. (Boucomontia) depressa; incl. C. (B.) imitatrix Balthasar 1965] CW92
    |--C. ducalis Blackburn 1903 [incl. C. acuticeps Felsche 1909] CW92
    |--C. lesnei Paulian 1933 CW92
    |--C. meridionalis Matthews 1976 CW92
    |--C. monstrosa Feksche 1909 CW92
    |--C. onitoides Gillet 1925 CW92
    |--C. stereocera Gillet 1911 CW92
    |--C. subaenea Harold 1877 [incl. C. (Boucomontia) nitida Paulian 1933] CW92
    `--C. torresica Matthews 1976 CW92

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[CW92] Cassis, G., & T. A. Weir. 1992. Scarabaeinae. In: Houston, W. W. K. (ed.) Zoological Catalogue of Australia vol. 9. Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea pp. 106–173. AGPS Press: Canberra.

Matthews, E. G. 1976. A revision of the scarabaeine dung beetles of Australia. III. Tribe Coprini. Australian Journal of Zoology, Supplementary Series 38: 1–52.