Semiarid environments are drylands characterized by very little rain and high temperatures. In Mexico, these found in the center north of country. It is common to think that few species could exist hot, dry environments, but semiarid actually contain a great variety life forms. Insects called dung beetles one important example. Dung use manure (poop) excreted mammals as food source make their n...

The study of desiccation resistance and its underlying traits is key to understanding species responses changes in water availability, especially the context predicted increases frequency severity droughts due climate change. We performed laboratory experiments using dung beetles, important ecosystem service providers, investigate variations physiological within species, both at population indi...

Agriculture is one of the largest contributors of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) responsible for global warming. Measurements of gas fluxes from dung pats suggest that dung is a source of GHGs, but whether these emissions are modified by arthropods has not been studied. A closed chamber system was used to measure the fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2...

African beetles Onthophagus gazella from both sexes were analyzed by electrophoresis for an investigation of esterase isozymes using alpha-naphthyl propionate and methylumbelliferyl propionate as substrates. Only one of the esterases (Est. 6) reacted with one of the substrates (alpha-naphthyl propionate). Six areas of activity were found, two of them being polymorphic (Est. 3 and Est. 4). For p...