Department of Zoology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra-136 119, Haryana (India).
Succession of scarabeid dung-beetles and their community structure was studied in bovine dung under tropical conditions in India. In contrast to the longer cycles of temperate region, the succession lasted for 4 and 8 days in May and August, respectively in tropical conditions. Drying of dung and becoming unhabitable very fast was due to arid conditions. Out of the total 17 species obtained from 4 genera of Scarabaeinae, viz., Onthophagus Latreille (bonasus (F.), catta (F.), centricornis (F.), falsus Gill., mopsus (F.), ramosellus (Betes), Oniticellus Serville (pallipes (F.), spinipes Roth.), Drepanocerus Kirby (setosus (Wied.) and Onitis F. (subopacus Arrow); and one genus of Aphodiinae, i.e., Aphodius Illiger (crenatus Har., lividus (Oliv.), marginellus F., moestus F., testaceus Germ. urostigma Har., Aphodius sp.). in May and August, most of them (14 species) visited dung on the 1st day itself, but the peak in species number (15 species) was on 2nd day. Though the successional pattern in species diversity and biomass were broadly the same as in species number, there were evidently some small differences. However, the successional pattern in abundance of beetles was a little more different from the other three, with peaks on the 1st and 3rd-day. Consequently, the beetle community changed daily to some extent in all its characteristics, i.e., species number, diversity, abundance, and beetle size. The differences in the patterns of May and August were merely seasonal. Primarily, there were two guilds, one preferring quite fresh dung and the other mostly 1-2-day old. That Drepanocerus setosus (Wied.), did not make any distinction between fresh and old dung, was an exception. The individualistic behaviour in species was found to be more predominant.
