Adults are commonly about 12–20 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Trypocopris vernalis
A metallic dung beetle that buries food underground and can produce an audible rasp by rubbing specialised body parts.
About this species
Spring Dor Beetle
Trypocopris vernalis(Linnaeus, 1758)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Trypocopris vernalis is a metallic blue, green or violet earth-boring dung beetle. Adults excavate burrows beneath or near dung and provision underground chambers for their larvae.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Geotrupidae · Trypocopris
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe and western AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Europe and western Asia
Woodland, heath, pasture and sandy or light soils where mammal dung is available.
Adults are active from spring into summer and may fly in warm weather.
Dung and other decaying organic material.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
The beetle can stridulate — producing a clearly audible rasp by rubbing a specialised file-and-scraper system on the hind body.
Instead of leaving larvae exposed in a dung pat, adults bury provisions underground and create protected chambers in which the grubs develop.
The same species can shine blue, green, violet or nearly black because microscopic cuticle structure alters the reflected light rather than relying on simple paint-like colour.