The night and day of dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae) in the Serra do Japi, Brazil: elytra colour related to daily activity

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In the present study 387 dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) were surveyed at the Serra do Japi, in the Atlantic Forest in São Paulo State, with four baited pitfall traps during the months of December, 1998, and January, 1999 during eight 24 hour cycles. A total of 30 species were identified and temporal variation in activity patterns among the species shows a specialization in the use of food resources: 9 species were classified as nocturnal and 13 as diurnal. The daily activity pattern of dung beetles does not necessarily correspond to the taxonomic classification, but is strongly related to the colouring of species, determined by predominant elytra colour: nocturnal species have 89 % more chances of being black as opposed to colourful. Black nocturnal species might have evolved as an interspecific adaptation to avoid predation (cryptic colouring). Among the colourful diurnal dung beetles, measure of body length of each species shows that development of bright colouring was more often found in medium to large species, which suggests that colouring evolved as a response to intraspecific pressures, important in agonistic encounters among males.

Besouros Escarabeíneos (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Da Caatinga Paraibana, Brasil

“…Surpreende o padrão apresentado por C. pertyi, já que as espécies do gê-nero Coprophanaeus geralmente apresentam atividade crepuscular, sendo que esta espécie da caatinga é claramente diurna. As outras espécies apresentaram padrões semelhantes aos esperados para os respectivos gêneros (Gill 1991, Hernández 2002, Feer & Pincebourde 2005.…”

Seasonal and spatial species richness variation of dung beetle (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae s. str.) in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil

“…There are few studies of the dung beetle fauna on this biome (see Louzada & Lopes 1997;Vaz-de-Mello & Louzada 1997;Vaz-de-Mello 2000;Hernández 2002Hernández , 2003Endres et al 2005Endres et al , 2007; thus, this study aimed to survey the dung beetles that inhabit Serra do Japi's Atlantic Forest and to analyze the spatial and seasonal variation of species richness in areas with different vegetation structure during one year.…”

First record of Scybalocanthon nigriceps (Harold, 1868) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) in Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil

“…In Brazil, there are records from states of Paraná, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, a relatively widespread distribution across sites of Atlantic Forest (Schmidt 1922, Pessôa and Lane 1941, Hernández and Vaz-de-Mello 2009, Hernández et al 2011, Vaz-de-Mello et al 2014. It is a yellow-bodied diurnal species (Hernández 2002), occurring in shaded areas and commonly attracted to pitfall traps baited with human feces ( (Spix, 1824) in São Paulo, arguing that this species has generalist trophic habits. In our study, S. nigriceps is reported for the first time from Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil.…”