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Project Noah Nature School
Othophagus sp.
Black beetle with ridges on elytra.
wet, dead grass
Thanks so much for the ID! Although it's certainly not the highlight of my collection, I'm always glad to find a new-to-me spotting!
It looks like an Othogphagus beetle, found in California. It has the flattened shovel-like front end of the head that all the dung beetles have for digging through dung. (p.s. Othophagus means "dung eater"). =)
It looks very similar to this one: http://travel.mongabay.com/costa_rica/60...
which is found in Costa Rica. Of course, there are quite a few dung beetles in CA that are not native. I'll keep looking and see if I can find a likely candidate.
Spotted on Mar 20, 2012
Submitted on Mar 20, 2012
