The impact of dung beetles on the free-living stages of ruminant parasites in faeces and their role as biological control agents in grazing livestock.

Dung beetles provide a variety of ecosystem services in both natural and farmed landscapes. Amongst these services, reductions in the abundance of the free-living stages of pests and parasites that develop in faeces is considered to be of great importance. There is evidence from Australia that enhanced dung beetle populations can reduce populations of pest fly species, particularly the bush fly, however, there is little empirical evidence for reductions in the incidence and impact of nematode parasitism in grazing ruminants.

Dung removal increases under higher dung beetle functional diversity regardless of grazing intensification.

Dung removal by macrofauna such as dung beetles is an important process for nutrient cycling in pasturelands. Intensification of farming practices generally reduces species and functional diversity of terrestrial invertebrates, which may negatively affect ecosystem services. Here, we investigate the effects of cattle-grazing intensification on dung removal by dung beetles in field experiments replicated in 38 pastures around the world.

Description of Culicoides truuskae sp. n. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from southern Africa.

Culicoides truuskae Labuschagne and Meiswinkel sp. n. is described and illustrated in both sexes from material collected in South Africa and Namibia.

Global dispersal and diversification in ground beetles of the subfamily Carabinae.

The origin and diversification process of lineages of organisms that are currently widely distributed among continents is an interesting subject for exploring the evolutionary history of global species diversity. Ground beetles of the subfamily Carabinae are flightless except for one lineage, but nevertheless occur on all continents except Antarctica. Here, we used sequence data from ultraconserved elements to reconstruct the phylogeny, divergence time, biogeographical history, ancestral state of hind wings and changes in the speciation rate of Carabinae.

Upsa centennial, a new genus and species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Endroedyolini) from the Southern Mistbelt forest in South Africa: celebrating 100 years of entomology at the University of Pretoria.

Upsa centennial Deschodt, Sole Scholtz, new genus and species is described, celebrating a century of entomology at the University of Pretoria. This new genus in the dung beetle tribe Endroedyolini (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) occurs in the Albany Coastal Mistbelt forest in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. A distribution map and key for all genera and species in the tribe are provided.

Defining new dung beetle tribes to resolve discrepancies between phylogeny and tribal classification in the subfamily Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae).

The monophyletic, dung beetle subfamily, Scarabaeinae, has a long history of subdivision into tribes and subtribes represented by groups of genera unified by designated characters. Various tribal names have been proposed although only 11 or 12 were considered valid in recent reviews. Three of these 12 tribes have now been invalidated due to extensive polyphyly indicated by both morphological and molecular phylogenies.

A new Phoberus MacLeay species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Trogidae) from the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of southern Africa and the Phoberus caffer species group reviewed.

Phoberus ntlenyanae Strümpher, new species is described from Lesotho and South Africa and is placed in the southern African Phoberus caffer group of species. The P. caffer species group is redefined to include the new species.

Grebennikovius, a new genus to accommodate Epactoides basilewskyi (Balthasar, 1960) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Deltochilini).

Phacosoma basilewskyi Balthasar, 1960 was described for a peculiar East African deltochiline dung beetle species. Years later, Paulian (1975) erected the deltochiline genus Madaphacosoma Paulian, 1975 for two new Malagasy species, namely Madaphacosoma humberti Paulian, 1975, as the type species, and M. betschi Paulian, 1975.

Redescription of the holotype of Bostrichoclerus bicornus Van Dyke, 1938, a rare species of the New World Tillinae Fauna (Coleoptera: Cleridae), with some taxonomic notes.

Bostrichoclerus bicornus Van Dyke is known from southwest United States and northwest Mexico. To date, only two specimens have been captured: the holotype, collected on Isla Angel de la Guarda, in the Gulf of California, Mexico, and a second individual collected in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The original description of B.

An update to the taxonomy of the genus Macroderes Westwood 1842 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) with descriptions of new species from South Africa.

The genus Macroderes Westwood, 1842 (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae, tribe incertae sedis) is practically endemic to South Africa with only one species that is found little north in southern Namibia. The ranges of the species are limited to the winter-fall and bimodal biomes of South Africa comprising the regions of Richtersveld as extreme points of its northerly distribution, and extending to the south through Namaqualand to Cape Agulhas. The taxonomy of the genus is revised.

Multi-locus phylogeny of southern African Acontias aurantiacus (Peters) subspecies (Scincidae: Acontinae) confirms the presence of three genetically, geographically and morphologically discrete taxa.

Acontias aurantiacus (Peters) presently consists of five subspecies that are largely restricted to the coastal regions and offshore islands of Mozambique and northern South Africa, with subspecies being defined on the basis of morphological differences and/or parapatric distributions. In this study one nuclear (RAG1) and two mitochondrial (cyt b and 16S) genes of 30 individuals sampled from four Mozambican and five South African localities were used to assess the taxonomic relationships of three mainland A. aurantiacus subspecies.

Five new species of Gray, 1832 (Coleoptera: Cleridae: Tillinae) from Mexico and Central America.

Five new species of Cymatodera from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama are described here based on adult male and female specimens: Cymatodera humeralis sp. n; Cymatodera lorenae sp. n.

A new brachypterous species of MacLeay (Coleoptera: Trogidae) and status changes of species in the East African group.

A new brachypterous species, Phoberus nyikanus Strümpher (Coleoptera: Trogidae), is described from Malawi. In addition, three status changes are proposed: Phoberus nigrociliatus (Kolbe) from the Ethiopian highlands, P. nyansanus (Haaf) from central East Africa, and P.

Correction: The Gut Microbiomes of Two Pachysoma MacLeay Desert Dung Beetle Species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) Feeding on Different Diets.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

The Gut Microbiomes of Two Pachysoma MacLeay Desert Dung Beetle Species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) Feeding on Different Diets.

Micro-organisms inhabiting animal guts benefit from a protected and nutrient-rich environment while assisting the host with digestion and nutrition. In this study we compare, for the first time, the bacterial and fungal gut communities of two species of the small desert dung beetle genus Pachysoma feeding on different diets: the detritivorous P. endroedyi and the dry-dung-feeding P.

A new monotypic genus, a species synonymy and nomenclatural corrections in the arid-adapted Canthonini (Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) from the Succulent Karoo Biome of south-western Africa.

Although it has been demonstrated that the tribe Canthonini (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) is polyphyletic, those canthonine genera occurring in arid south-western Africa apparently form a monophyletic group. In this paper we add one new monotypic genus, Drogo stalsi gen. et.

Three new Sisyphus species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) from shaded vegetation in southern Africa.

Descriptions are provided for three new shade-associated species in the dung beetle genus, Sisyphus Latreille, 1807: Sisyphus umbraphilus sp. nov., Sisyphus oralensis sp.

Taxonomy of Colophon Gray (Coleoptera: Lucanidae): new species and a status change.

Three new species of the Cape high-mountain stag beetle genus, Colophon Gray (Coleoptera: Lucanidae), from South Africa are described. They are C. deschodti new species, C.

A review on the effect of macrocyclic lactones on dung-dwelling insects: Toxicity of macrocyclic lactones to dung beetles.

Avermectins and milbemycins are commonly used in agro-ecosystems for the control of parasites in domestic livestock. As integral members of agro-ecosystems with importance in maintaining pasture health through dung burial behaviour, dung beetles are an excellent nontarget bio-indicator taxon for examining potential detrimental effects of pesticide application. The current review focuses on the relative toxicity of four different anthelmintics (ivermectin, eprinomectin, doramectin and moxidectin) in dung residues using dung beetles as a bioindicator species.

A new synonymy in the fidius group of Copris Müller 1764 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) and a new species from the highland grasslands of South Africa.

The fidius group constitutes the basal clade in a phylogeny of the Afrotropical members of the genus, Copris Müller, 1764. In this paper we describe Copris crassus Deschodt and Davis as a new species in this group. We also demonstrate that the distributional function between two body dimensions (lateral horn length and mid-line elytron length) differs between Copris fidius (Olivier 1789) and C.

Status changes, new synonymies, key and descriptions of seven new species in the subgenus Scarabaeus (Scarabaeolus) Balthasar 1965 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae).

Distribution of the subgenus Scarabaeus (Scarabaeolus) Balthasar 1965 (tribe Scarabaeini) is centred on southern and south central Africa with only three out of 27 species recorded from West and northeast Africa. After taxonomic corrections and descriptions of seven new southern African species this somewhat controversial subgenus now comprises 33 valid species of which one is flightless. In this paper, Scarabaeus (Scarabaeolus) vansoni Ferreira 1958 syn.

A new galloping gait in an insect.

An estimated three million insect species all walk using variations of the alternating tripod gait [1]. At any one time, these animals hold one stable triangle of legs steady while swinging the opposite triangle forward. Here, we report the discovery that three different flightless desert dung beetles use an additional gallop-like gait, which has never been described in any insect before.

Elongated hindguts in desert-living dung beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) feeding on dry dung pellets or plant litter.

Most adult dung beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) feed on fresh, wet dung of larger herbivorous or omnivorous mammals. As refractory plant fragments are selected out before ingestion, the food is presumed easily digestible. However, members of the desert-living scarabaeine genus Pachysoma (probably evolved from an ancestor closely related to the wet-dung feeding genus Scarabaeus) select dry dung pellets and/or plant litter.

Dung beetles use the Milky Way for orientation.

When the moon is absent from the night sky, stars remain as celestial visual cues. Nonetheless, only birds, seals, and humans are known to use stars for orientation. African ball-rolling dung beetles exploit the sun, the moon, and the celestial polarization pattern to move along straight paths, away from the intense competition at the dung pile.

Morphology and terminology of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) male genitalia.

The external and internal male genitalia of 327 species of 11 tribes of the subfamily Scarabaeinae, including species of Deltochilini, Scarabaeini, Gymnopleurini, Ateuchini, and Coprini, among others, were examined. Descriptions of the variations in the genital segment, the aedeagus, the internal sac, and its sclerites and raspules are presented. An exhaustive comparison of structures, names, and terminology used in literature for Scarabaeinae male genitalia are discussed.