''Sisyphus'' is a
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
dung beetle
Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. All species of dung beetle belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles). As most species of Scara ...
s comprising more than 90 species.
Adults are characterised by their long hind legs.
Etymology
The genus is named after
Sisyphus
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus or Sisyphos (; Ancient Greek: Σίσυφος ''Sísyphos'') was the founder and king of Ancient Corinth, Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He reveals Zeus's abduction of Aegina (mythology), Aegina to the river god As ...
, a mortal in
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
who was condemned to the task of rolling a boulder up a hill for
eternity
Eternity, in common parlance, is an Infinity, infinite amount of time that never ends or the quality, condition or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside tim ...
.
Distribution
Africa, Eurasia, Asia, Central America and Australia.
Habits
Adults separate balls of dung from droppings and roll them some distance over the soil surface before burying them.
Eggs are laid in the buried dung; this provides a source of food for the larvae once they hatch.
Species
One common species is ''
Sisyphus schaefferi''
(Linnaeus, 1758).
References
Scarabaeinae
{{Scarabaeinae-stub