Ochodaeidae Streubel, 1846

Ochodaeidae Streubel, 1846 View in CoL

Figs 4G, 6A

Diagnosis. The most conspicuous and useful characteristic to separate Ochodaeidae from other Scarabaeoidea family is the presence of a pectinate spur on the mesotibia ( Fig. 6A). No other family of Scarabaeoidea has this characteristic (see Paulsen and Ocampo 2012).

Remarks. The Ochodaeidae are a widespread family with 159 described species in 22 genera and two extant subfamilies (one extinct; Schoolmeesters 2023). The dichotomous key provide by Paulsen and Ocampo (2012) is the unique tool to identify the South American species. For the Brazilian territory, just three species in one genus ( Parochodaeus Nikolajev, 1995 ) are reported: Parochodaeus jatahyensis ( Benderitter, 1912) from Goiás (GO), P. campsognathus ( Arrow, 1904) from Mato Grosso (MT) and Rio Grande do Sul (RS), and P. cornutus ( Ohaus, 1910) also from RS ( Vaz-de-Mello and Costa-Silva 2023). With the exception of the study by Paulsen and Ocampo (2012), no other study has addressed the South American fauna of Ochodaeidae .

Available data on the natural history of Ochodaeidae are limited ( Carlson 1975). Recent studies have mentioned species of Ochodaeidae as agricultural pests of the summer truffle (Asmomycota: Tuberaceae : Tuber aestivum Vittadini, 1831 ) in the Galilee region, Israel ( Huchet et al. 2022). In the Brazilian context, despite the economic growth in the production and trade of hypogeous fungi (e.g., truffles and/ or plants with mycorrhizal associations; see Sulzbacher et al. 2012, 2019, Grupe et al. 2018), the ecological relationships between Ochodaeidae and truffle cultivation remain unknown. Based on the material we examined in South American entomological collections, species of Ochodaeidae can be collected using flight interception traps and light traps.