Pylogeny and evolution of diet of the Scarabaeoidea

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The superfamily Scarabaeoidea shows remarkable adaptations to various food resources such as soil, rotting wood, carrion, other animal remains, living plant roots, humus and dung. Some groups are associating with social insects. Various hypotheses have been proposed about the possible origins and evolution of feeding habits in the Scarabaeoidea, but most of them were intuitive or superficial and without phylogenetic data. In the present study, I used both the morphological and molecular techniques for the representative groups in order to improve phylogenetic estimates. Based on the suggested phylogenetic trees, I also discussed the evolution of feeding habits of the superfamily Scarabaeoidea.