NORTH AMERICAN GEOTRUPINAE — HOWDEN 295 



These tliree tribes, the Lethrini, Geotrupini, and Bolboceratini, 

 have little in common. The Lethrini are confined to eastern Europe, 

 the Near East, and Asia, with the greatest speciation occurring in the 

 Near East. The distribution of the major component of this tribe, 

 the genus Lethrus, has been discussed by Semenov (1901, p. 251) and 

 Reitter (1890, pp. 288-295). The Geotrupini are circumpolar in the 

 Northern Hemisphere, absent in the Southern Hemisphere. The 

 Bolboceratini are also circumpolar, but in this case they are largely 



Table 7. — Geographic distribution of Bolboceratini 



Ih 



£ 8 



•H I- « i I , I 2 i , 



Europe __-l____l___ 2 



Russia.. - -_---_______ 



Eastern Asia, Japan 3-4--2-1-1--11 



India, Burma, Malaysia 2-32-12----- --46 



Australia _ -2 70---1---2-75 



South Africa... 6- 40 --------- 46 



North Africa, Near East 1-1-----3--2 7 



South America east of Andes 42112---1-----56 



South America west of Andes 7- 13 --------- 20 



North America east of Rocky Mts --69-11 3----- 29 



North America west of Rocky Mts --51-1 1-2--- 10 



Central America 9-l____l____Xl 



Total... 70 3 184 11 12 14 6 2 6 1 2 2 313 



restricted to the Southern Hemisphere with a few species occurring in 

 the dry, hot regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Since the habits of 

 these three groups are almost as diversified as their ranges, a brief 

 account of the biological information accumulated on each of the 

 tribes follows. 



BIOLOGY OF THE LETHRINI 



Living as they do in inaccessible areas, most of the Lethrini are 

 poorly known. The one notable exception is the single European 

 representative of the tribe, Lethrus apterus Laxman. One of the first 

 works on its biology was byEmich (1884, pp. 184-188), in which he 

 briefly discusses its metamorphosis. Perhaps the best paper on the 

 development and habits of Lethrus apterus was by Schreiner (1906, 

 pp. 197-208), in which he fully describes the peculiar habits and 

 development of the "Rebenschneider" or vine-cutter. 



Burrowing beetles usually confine their activities to the surface of 

 the ground, but this is not true of Lethrus. The adults were found 



327015—55 10 



