Phoretic-mite-association
Guides
Mycotrupes
Mycotrupes is a genus of flightless, earth-boring scarab beetles comprising five described species endemic to the southeastern United States. All species are allopatric, each restricted to isolated deep sand ridges in peninsular Florida or elevated sand hill habitats along the Piedmont-Atlantic Coastal Plain juncture in southern South Carolina and Georgia. The genus originated near the Fall Line during the Tertiary, with Pleistocene sea level changes driving subsequent speciation. Flightlessness evolved early through metathoracic wing degradation and median fusion of prothoracic elytrae.
Mycotrupes gaigei
North peninsular mycotrupes beetle
Mycotrupes gaigei is a flightless, allopatric earth-boring scarab beetle endemic to deep sand ridges in northwestern peninsular Florida. It is considered the most morphologically aberrant member of its genus, characterized by metathoracic wing degradation and median fusion of prothoracic elytrae. The species is an efficient burrower, tunneling through sand to depths exceeding six feet. It maintains an exclusive phoretic relationship with the mite Geotrupacarus mycotrupetes, which does not occur on any other Mycotrupes species.