Assemblages of Coprophilous Beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) in the Pastureland of Central Mongolia

Abstract

Results of studies on species composition, abundance and community structure of beetles found in dung of the reintroduced wild horses (Przewalski’s horses), domestic horses and cattle are presented. Beetles were collected using pitfall traps baited with fresh dung as an odor attractant. Four species of dung beetles, Aphodius erraticus (Linnaeus, 1758), A. subterraneus (Linnaeus, 1758), Gymnopleurus mopsus (Pallas, 1781), Onthophagus gibbulus (Pallas, 1781), one species of rove beetle, Staphylinus dauricus Mannerheim, 1830, and another species of burying beetle, Nicrophorus argutor Jakovlev, 1890 are found. In most dung, the lamellicorn beetle species, namely O. gibbulus , A. erraticus and G. mopsus are dominated, which composed up to 80% of all entrapped beetles. The two species of rove and carrion beetles, S. dauricus and N. argutor were less numerous in traps, although the fi rst species abundantly occurs in exposed horse dung. Study sites with little or no grazing differ from intensively grazed pastures not only by higher diversity of coprophilous beetles, but also in the greater number of dominating species, as well as their abundance. Signi fi cant negative correlations were found among the species richness, abundance of coprophilous beetles and number of herbivore droppings.

Keywords

• coprophilous beetles
• community structure
• dung
• Scarabaeidae
• Staphylinidae
• Silphidae
• pasture