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...

An interesting feature of dung beetle behaviour is that once they have formed a piece of dung into a ball, they roll it along a straight path away from the dung pile. This straight-line orientation ensures that the beetles depart along the most direct route, guaranteeing that they will not return to the intense competition (from other beetles) that occurs near the dung pile. Before rolling a ne...

Dung fungi, such as Sordaria fimicola, generally reproduce sexually with ascospores discharged from mammalian dung after passage through herbivores. Their life cycle is thought to be obligate to dung, and thus their ascospores in Quaternary sediments have been interpreted as evidence of past mammalian herbivore activity. Reports of dung fungi as endophytes would seem to challenge the view that ...

Insecticide treatment of cattle is an important method of tsetse control. However, insecticides applied to cattle have been shown to contaminate dung. This has a significant impact on insects using the dung as a resource, e.g. dung beetles. This reduces the recycling of dung and has a negative impact on productivity of pasture. However, applications of insecticide restricted to only the legs an...

Insecticide treatment of cattle is an important method of tsetse control. However, insecticides applied to cattle have been shown to contaminate dung. This has a significant impact on insects using the dung as a resource, e.g. dung beetles. This reduces the recycling of dung and has a negative impact on productivity of pasture. However, applications of insecticide restricted to only the legs an...

Cattle farming is a major source of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Recent research suggests that GHG fluxes from dung pats could be affected by biotic interactions involving dung beetles. Whether and how these effects vary among beetle species and with assemblage composition is yet to be established. To examine the link between GHGs and different dung beetle species assemblages, we used a closed cham...

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 ...

Many fly species bred in dung accumulating underneath the chicken cages and they represent a serious risk for human and animal health since several of then can act as disease vectors. There are restrictions to the exclusive use for insecticides against fly proliferation since many of them can be toxic against natural predators of such flies and also because these can quickly develop genetic ins...