Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 65

Mothering an Australian dynasty: brood provisioning in Haploscapanes barbarossa (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Dynastini)

Citation

Monteith, G.B. & Allsopp, P.G. (2024). Mothering an Australian dynasty: brood provisioning in Haploscapanes barbarossa (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Dynastini). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 65: 22–29. https://doi.org/10.17082/j.2204-1478.65.2024.2024-01

Accepted

13 February 2024

Published online

28 March 2024

Peer reviewed

Yes

DOI

https://doi.org/10.17082/j.2204-1478.65.2024.2024-01

Keywords

brood provisioning, burrows, scarabs, burrowing cockroaches, Dynastinae.

Abstract 

Females of the Australian dynastine beetle Haploscapanes barbarossa (Fabricius, 1775) excavate burrows and provision them with food for young larvae. Larvae consume that food, but not enough is provided for the larva to complete development. In northern Queensland, some of the partially developed larvae move to adjacent burrows of the cockroach Macropanesthia rhinoceros Saussure, 1895, where they feed on the considerable organic material, including leaf material and cockroach frass, that builds up in these chambers up to 1 m below the surface. In other areas of northern Australia, there are no burrowing cockroaches, so the larvae must find other food sources after the early stages.