Agriculture is one of the largest anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs), with dairy and beef production accounting for nearly two-thirds of emissions. Several recent papers suggest that dung beetles may affect fluxes of GHGs from cattle farming. Here, we put these previous findings into context. Using Finland as an example, we assessed GHG emissions at three scales: the dung pat, pas...

background: dung beetles of coleoptera associated to undisturbed cattle droppings in pastures present great diver sity and abundance. dung beetles also play an important role for transmission of some helminthes to human and cat tle. this study was made to survey the biodiversity and abundance of these beetles in ardebil province, western iran. methods: according to the field study all beetles a...

Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) in three landscapes in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Dung Beetles are important for biological control of intestinal worms and dipterans of economic importance to cattle, because they feed and breed in dung, killing parasites inside it. They are also very useful as bioindicators of species diversity in agricultural or natural environments. The aims of this...

Cryptosporidium oocysts were inoculated into fresh dung (∼1.2×10(4) oocysts per gram wet weight) and fed to dung beetles to assess the effect of dung burial by the dung beetle Bubas bison on the distribution of the oocysts in small cores of soil in the laboratory. The experiment consisted of five replicates of each of two treatments; controls (dung but no dung beetles) and the experimental trea...

Dung beetles belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, and are mostly within the subfamilies of Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae. They are given their name because they feed partially or exclusively on feces. Each species of dung beetles can be classified as one of several types: rollers, tunnelers and dwellers. Rollers roll the dung into round balls, which are then used for brooding chambers or as a...

Antibiotics are routinely used to improve livestock health and growth. However, this practice may have unintended environmental impacts mediated by interactions among the wide range of micro- and macroorganisms found in agroecosystems. For example, antibiotics may alter microbial emissions of greenhouse gases by affecting livestock gut microbiota. Furthermore, antibiotics may affect the microbi...

purpose: to report the development of cataract after corneal damage by dungle beetle prongs. case report: a 28 year-old man, resident of the village chah setareh, sabzevar, presented complaining of trauma to the right eye with the dangle beetle while motorcycling. slit lamp examination revealed six corneal perforations, hyphema (50% of anterior chamber) percent, iris sphincter rupture, and rupt...

The diversity, guild structure and succession of dung beetles associated with Indian elephant dung is described in a deciduous forest site in Western Ghats, a hot spot of diversity in India. Dung beetles were collected using baited pitfall traps and from exposed dung pats in the forest at intervals of 1, 3, 5, 7, 15 and 21 days. Twenty-one dung beetle species belonging to the 3 major functional...

Research on dung beetles is uncovering surprising insights into both the history of this ancient family of insects and the value of the ecological services many species provide. For one, some dung beetles are far older than scientists realized. An Australian and Czech research team found molecular evidence that the scarab beetle subfamily Scarabaeinae evolved 115 million to 120 million years ag...

Mammal feces are the primary food and nesting resource for the majority of dung beetle species, and larval development depends on the quantity and quality of that resource. Physiological necessities, competitive interactions, and resource sharing are common and suggest that dung beetles may show preferences for feces of greater nutritional quality, which may in turn impact beetle assemblages an...