Trox scaber
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Trox scaber is a beetle of the family Trogidae. The 5 to 8 mm long insect is found worldwide, including in Europe, and lives in bird nests. The elytra and pronotum are roughly sculptured, and there are bristly scales on the elytral ridges. The larvae develop in tawny owl and other owl nests but also in the hollow tree nests of jackdaw, woodpecker and others. They feed mainly on small dry carcasses, especially when dry.
Trox scaber was previously put in the Scarabaeidae because of the similarity of its antennae to that of members of this family. The genus Trox has 46 species throughout the world. In Europe, there are 21 species, all belonging to the subgenus Trox. There are about 8 in Central Europe.
The name Trox (from the Ancient Greek τροξ, meaning "chewer") may have been given because the mandible is forked. It is described by Fabricius as Maxilla bifida. The species name scaber (Latin scaber = rough) alludes to the rough surface of the elytra.
The beetle is brown to black-brown. The antennae are rust red. The bristles are brownish-yellow and not black. The body is short, obovate and dome-shaped. The head is recessed into the pronotum... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vienna | 🇦🇹 Austria |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Trox scaber sighting in Vienna on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 698th most-seen of the 1406 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Trox scaber in Vienna on a given day, against under 5% in July to May, the lowest months. That is one of Vienna's wettest months, with about 90 mm of rain against 40 mm in February.
Only Vienna, in our data
Vienna is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Trox scaber sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Coleoptera
The closest relatives of the Trox scaber that you can see in Vienna (order Coleoptera, Beetles) are Asian Lady Beetle (about 40%), Seven-Spotted Lady Beetle (about 30%) and Mediterranean Spotted Chafer (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Trox scaber is recorded against all the insects logged in Vienna (17 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
