Find of insects during archaeological excavations

The research was conducted on the territory of the Oktyabrsky district of the Volgograd region (Northern Ergeni with chestnut soils).

As a result of archaeological excavations conducted jointly by the Volga State University and the Institute of Physical and Biological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Sarmatian mound (1st century AD) was excavated. The research was conducted on the territory of the Oktyabrsky district of the Volgograd region (Northern Ergeni with chestnut soils). At the bottom of the grave pit at a depth of about 2 meters was found a clay jug. The remains of black-bodied beetles were found in large numbers in the vessel.
Ask knowledgeable people to determine the genus and species of these creatures and give their ecology

Hilda, if you are from Volgograd, please contact Evgeny Vladimirovich Komarov (his nickname on the evk forum) and show him these finds (it is very difficult to determine from the photo)

And the size?

in my opinion, this is very similar to the remains of the ground beetle Taphoxenus gigas. Of the black-bodied species, the only one that looks similar is the species of the genus Cyphogenia, but their pronotum seems wider. More like tafox. If only a close-up shot of the pronotum from above...

Like many other ground beetles, Tafoxenus are nocturnal, hiding in the burrows of rodents and other mammals during the day. This year, I found another species of Taphoxenus - T. goliath-in the wells of the water supply system in the desert in the Aral Sea region, along with various blackbirds and gravediggers. They fall, but they can't get out. According to literature data, many species of related genera (Sphodrini tribes) are found in basements and cellars. And what is the probability that the beetles themselves climbed into this pot and could not get out? There were free niches in the grave where the beetles could reach the pot?

Thanks Cerambyx
The main task is to understand whether the beetles got into the pot before burial (i.e. the body of the deceased was opened for some time)
either the beetles have already crawled into a closed grave, although it could have had an overlap
. What do these ground beetles eat and at what time are they active ?
I'll look at them for a liter. thank
you Tell me how easier it is to contact Komarov, otherwise all data is lost (((
Chas all finds in Pushchino (Moscow.region)

The beetles were free to reach the pot. Tafoxenuses. What they eat and when they are active. We can understand the time of burial....

division price 1 mm

small critters

puparia or seeds?

animals or plants)))?

what is pronotum?

It is unlikely that this is the ground beetle Taphoxenus gigas. The remains of mandibles (if I put it correctly) were not found at all. I think chernotelki. Kaka for example:Tenebrio molitor
http://molbiol.ru/forums/uploads/a001/b098...-1259348832.jpg

maybe someone from the Blaptini tribe?

Heterotarsus carinula??????

To me, photos through magnification (at the beginning of the post) resemble scales from cereal seeds...
Puparia are usually dark in color and barrel-shaped. Puparia of carrion flies are more likely to be found in the grave, but they are much larger..

This post was edited by Elizar - 06.08.2011 05: 35

Thank you
Cerambyx Tell me how easier it is to contact Komarov, otherwise all data is lost (((
Chas all finds in Pushchino (Moscow region)

http://molbiol.ru/forums/index.php?act=Msg&CODE=4&MID=53085

as I have already written, they are active at night and often fall into various pits and wells. Like most ground beetles, they are carnivores.
The fact that you did not find mandibles ( mandibles )is not a reason not to consider beetles as tafoxenuses, because both ground beetles and blackbirds have mandibles.
This is certainly not Tenebrio, Blaps are not the same. Cyphogenia has a sharp keel on the side of the elytra, so that they also fall off. And of course this is not Heterotarsus!!!
So I think this is exactly Taphoxenus gigas. And in terms of size, the very thing.
I can hardly imagine Scythian graves... but if there were voids after closing, most likely the beetles got in at this time

thanks for the detailed answer
I threw links to images to add interest to the topic
there was probably a camera in the Sarmatian burial and the beetles got there after the burial
And at what time of the year are Taphoxenus gigas most active?

thank you

Here is part of the text on T. gigas from the upcoming review of protected beetles of the Southern Urals (see appendix to the Red Data Book of the Orenburg Region):
Habitats and lifestyle. It is found, as a rule, in virgin areas of mixed grass-turf-and-slag and turf-and-slag steppes, and it is also found in a potato field. Adults and larvae are predatory. Adult insects are found, obviously, during the entire warm season, in the Orenburg region they are recorded from May to August. Beetles are active at night, during the day they hide in various shelters, more often - in the burrows of ground squirrels.
According to O. L. Kryzhanovsky the species is distributed in the steppe zone from the south of Ukraine and the Ciscaucasia to the Altai and the eastern part of Kazakhstan

There is an idea that the burial site was open for some time (without a mound, in general, there was another, unfortunately looted burial site in the mound). Bugs could get into the jug in time to perform a trick, etc., and not get out again.
Can they climb freely on sloping surfaces?
If the burial was open for some time (several days), then the question of pupariimi flies (?)becomes interesting. raised in a nearby thread...

Easier forgiveness for anonymity...forgot to log in to forum

In the jug most likely was meat broth
probably delicious for predatory Taphoxenus gigas))

In the jug most likely was meat broth
probably delicious for predatory Taphoxenus gigas))

O-ot this is probably what lured them=) It is unlikely that they can climb vertical walls, if yes, then not with a 100% result, on inclined walls-perhaps, if the surface is not very smooth - not flies ge

well, they can't get out of a jug like that)

the question is open...or opened))

forgive my naivete, but you don't think the beetles were put in the jug on purpose?

unlikely) although everything can be....

Ground beetles in Sarmatian pots we have seen before:
...Let's note one more extremely interesting find. At the bottom of one of the vessels that were in the burial, about twenty chitinous elytra of insects were found. According to E. V. Komarov (Volgograd State Agricultural Academy), they belong to two species of beetles of the ground beetle family Carabidae: Taphoxenus gigas and T. rufitarsis. These species belong to the litter-soil ground beetles distributed in the desert-steppe zone. They are carnivorous predatory insects that feed on soil invertebrates (earthworms, mollusks, insects, etc.). The active life cycle of these beetles occurs during the warm period of the year, mainly in summer. There is no doubt that the elytra found belong to ancient ground beetles, which were attracted by the food in the vessel (dairy or meat), and the grave was still open at that time. The pot became a trap for them, from which the beetles could not get out due to the specifics of the motor apparatus, which does not allow them to move up surfaces with negative angles. Confirmation of the antiquity of insects is also the fact that ground beetles usually live under rocks, in the ground plant litter, in cracks and burrows in the upper soil layer. As a rule, they do not penetrate deeper than 50 — 70 cm. The level of the bottom of the grave pit is located 150 cm from the modern surface.Thus, the obtained natural-scientific data give grounds to believe that burial 2 in mound 6 was performed in the warm period of the year, obviously in summer...

http://vantit.ru/library/item/1228-kurgann...ina-srajxl.html

thanks to the moderators, so even better

We have seen ground beetles in Sarmatian pots before

Ground beetles (as well as black-bodied beetles) are characterized by penetration into bottles, etc. containers (especially with fermenting liquid-beer, leftover wine, etc.). In a bottle that has been lying in the steppe for several days, there will always be several dozen ground beetles, black-bodied beetles, and dead eaters.
I wrote my mobile phone in the soap - call us, let's see the material live. It is not possible to determine this type of image from the photo.

I post a link to the finds of beetles from medieval Yaroslavl: http://www.zin.ru/animalia/coleoptera/rus/vlasarch.htm