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Ironclad Beetle - Zopherus spp.
Topic Started: May 24 2014, 02:00 AM (1,267 Views)
linnaeus1758
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Ironclad Beetle - Zopherus spp.

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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Zopheridae
Genus: Zopherus (Gray, 1832)

Size: 15-35 mm.

Zopherus is a genus of beetles comprising 19 species. They live in the Americas and are adapted to wood-boring. Some species are used as living brooches.
The name Zopherus is from the Greek: zopher, meaning "dusky" or "gloomy".

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Description
Members of the genus are long and cylindrical, with very thick exoskeletons. Indeed, the elytra are so thick that it is often necessary to drill a hole in them in order to mount specimens. Species living north of the Rio Grande are almost all uniformly black in colour, while the tropical species are almost all strongly patterned in contrasting black and white. The animal's head is largely hidden by the thorax. The elytra are fused together, rendering Zopherus species unable to fly. Some species are used as living brooches.

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Biology
Zopherus species are adapted for boring into wood, some species even being reported to bore into sound wood, rather than only dead wood. Z. tristis lives under the bark of the desert tamarisk in the Colorado Desert, while Z. granicollis bores into the root crowns of Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) and single-leaf pine (Pinus monophylla).

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Distribution
Species of Zopherus only live in the Americas, where they are distributed from Venezuela to the southern United States. Ten species live in the United States, five of them in California.

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Species
Charles A. Triplehorn recognised 19 species in his 1972 monograph:
Zopherus chilensis (Gray, 1832)
Zopherus nervosus (Solier, 1841)
Zopherus nodulosus (Solier, 1841)
Zopherus jourdani (Sallé, 1849)
Zopherus jansoni (Champion, 1884)
Zopherus mexicanus (Gray, 1832)
Zopherus angulicollis (Champion, 1884)
Zopherus laevicollis (Colier, 1841)
Zopherus xestus (Triplehorn, 1972)
Zopherus solieri (Triplehorn, 1972)
Zopherus championi (Triplehorn, 1972)
Zopherus tristis (LeConte, 1851)
Zopherus concolor (LeConte, 1851)
Zopherus gracilis (Horn, 1867)
Zopherus uteanus (Casey, 1907)
Zopherus granicollis (Horn, 1885)
Zopherus opacus (Horn, 1867)
Zopherus elegans (Horn, 1870)
Zopherus sanctaehelenae (Blaisdell, 1931)


Edited by Taipan, May 24 2014, 03:41 PM.
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