Species diversity and seasonal abundance of scarabaeoid dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Geotrupidae and Trogidae) attracted to cow dung in Central New Jersey

Abstract

Species diversity and abundance of scarabaeoid dung beetles (Coleoptera) attracted to fresh cow dung were studied in three habitats of New Jersey: Hutcheson Memorial Forest (HMF) disturbed field, HMF old growth forest, and Rutgers University Bovine Farm. Over a one year period, baited pitfall traps yielded a total of 15,206 beetles representing at least 26 species. Onthophagus hecate was a dominant species in all three sites, accounting for 55.1% of all individuals collected. Onthophagus pennsylvanicus and Copris minutus were present in high numbers in the field, comprising 25.1% and 3.8%, respectively, of specimens collected in that habitat, while O. orpheus and C. minutus were numerous in the forest (20.8% and 13.3%, respectively). Two introduced species, Aphodius lividus (68.5%) and O. taurus (9.6%), were the most numerous species on the farm. Nine species accounted for more than 96% of all scarabaeoid dung beetles collected during the year-long study. The majority of the beetles were collected during the warmer months (May–September), with general peaks appearing to be correlated with temperature. A total of five introduced species were collected: five in the farm site, two in the field site, but none in the forest; 80% of the individuals collected on the farm were introduced.

Full text

J. New York Entomol. Soc. 112(4):334–347, 2004
SPECIES DIVERSITY AND SEASONAL ABUNDANCE OF
SCARABAEOID DUNG BEETLES (COLEOPTERA: SCARABAEIDAE,
GEOTRUPIDAE AND TROGIDAE) ATTRACTED TO COW DUNG IN
CENTRAL NEW JERSEY
DANA L. PRICE
14 College Farm Road, Department of Ecology, Evolution, Natural Resources,
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901
Abstract.—Species diversity and abundance of scarabaeoid dung beetles (Coleoptera) attracted to fresh
cow dung were studied in three habitats of New Jersey: Hutcheson Memorial Forest (HMF) disturbed field,
HMF old growth forest, and Rutgers University Bovine Farm. Over a one year period, baited pitfall traps
yielded a total of 15,206 beetles representing at least 26 species. Onthophagus hecate was a dominant
species in all three sites, accounting for 55.1% of all individuals collected. Onthophagus pennsylvanicus
and Copris minutus were present in high numbers in the field, comprising 25.1% and 3.8%, respectively, of
specimens collected in that habitat, while O. orpheus and C. minutus were numerous in the forest (20.8%
and 13.3%, respectively). Two introduced species, Aphodius lividus (68.5%) and O. taurus (9.6%), were
the most numerous species on the farm. Nine species accounted for more than 96% of all scarabaeoid dung
beetles collected during the year-long study. The majority of the beetles were collected during the warmer
months (May–September), with general peaks appearing to be correlated with temperature. A total of five
introduced species were collected: five in the farm site, two in the field site, but none in the forest; 80% of
the individuals collected on the farm were introduced.
Key words: dung beetles, New Jersey, Onthophagus,Aphodius, species diversity, species abundance,
introduced species.
A variety of factors may influence the presence and distribution of coprophagous beetles in
a given area, including fauna, flora, solar radiation, temperature, soil type, soil pH, rainfall and,
most importantly, the supply of excrement for food (Fincher et al., 1970). Dung is patchy and
ephemeral; desiccation and some of the stiffest competition among arthropods often limits its
period of availability to only a few hours. In tropical and temperate localities, thousands of
individuals and dozens of species may be attracted to a single dropping (Hanski and Cambefort,
1991). One of the best known examples of this was demonstrated by Anderson and Coe (1974)
when they observed 16,000 dung beetles arriving at a 1.5 kg heap of elephant dung in East
Africa. These beetles found, fought over, ate, buried, pushed and rolled this ‘‘minor habitat’’
away in two hours.
Human impact on landscape, with the attendance of cattle, horses, and other domesticated
mammals, has been significant in Europe for thousands of years (Birks, 1986). In contrast,
Native Americans had no domesticated mammals except dogs (Delcourt, 1987), and large-
scale clearing of forests did not take place before the westward expansion of the American
frontier between 1790 and 1880 (Delcourt and Delcourt, 1987). The cumulative Native
American impact on the landscape in North America over millennia increased the size of old
fields and early successional forests, which led to an increase in the populations of white-tailed
deer, a major food source for Indians (Delcourt, 1987). In forested North America,

environmental conditions have long been favorable for Aphodius specializing on deer-dung. In
turn, these species have been unable to colonize recent pasture ecosystems, probably because
of their general ecophysiological adaptations to forest habitats. Currently, dung beetle
communities in pastures in North America are dominated by intentionally or accidentally
introduced dung beetles (Hanski and Cambefort, 1991). Thus these introduced species may be
important for nutrient cycling in disturbed habitats but might also adversely impact native dung
beetle communities if and when they spread into other habitats.
Studies conducted in Hutcheson Memorial Forest and The Great Swamp National Wildlife
Refuge have demonstrated a high diversity of necrophagous beetles in Central New Jersey
including 10 species of scarab beetles (Shubeck et al., 1977; Shubeck et al., 1981). However,
there have been no studies in this region to examine the composition of coprophagous beetle
assemblages. The purpose of this study was to determine species diversity and abundance of
scarabaeoid dung beetles (Scarabaeidae, Geotrupidae, and Trogidae) attracted to cow dung in
three habitats of central New Jersey: Hutcheson Memorial Forest (HMF) disturbed field; HMF
old growth forest; and Rutgers University Bovine Farm (RUBF). The main objectives were
1) to compare species diversity among the three different habitats; 2) to determine seasonal
variation in the abundance of scarabaeoid dung beetles; and 3) provide baseline data to
document the presence of introduced dung beetles in the disturbed field and forest habitat.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Field sites
A survey of coprophagous Scarabaeoidea was conducted in Middlesex County, New
Brunswick (RUBF) and Somerset County, Franklin Township (HMF), New Jersey, USA. The
RUBF consists of a 2-hectare farm which, on average, holds approximately 45 cows. During
the year, the cows were herded from one arena to another within this area. These cows are fed
a combination of corn silage, Timothy hay and wet brewer’s grain. Pilot studies conducted at
the University farm suggested that the abundance of beetles found in pitfalls by the open
pasture was equivalent to the number of individuals collected by the barn (Price, unpubl. obs.,
2002). The Hutcheson Memorial Forest (HMF), owned by Rutgers University, is a 26-ha old-
growth mixed-oak stand believed to be relatively undisturbed since 1702 (Buell et al., 1954;
Buell, 1957). The tract includes a number of adjoining 1-ha abandoned fields of known-age
(Robertson and Vitousek, 1981). The soils at HMF belong to the Penn soil series, derived from
the Triassic red shale of the Brunswick Formation and there are only slight variations in soil
texture, drainage, and depth among the sites (Ugolini, 1964). In addition, there are no
significant differences in chemical composition, mineralization potential, soil structure, soil
texture, or organic matter between the fields of different ages (Robertson and Vitousek, 1981;
Robertson, 1982). The climate of the area includes mild winters with subtropical summers
(Biel, 1958) and about 124 cm of annual rainfall. Average annual temperature is 11.48C with
monthly means ranging from 1.38Cto248C (New Jersey monthly climate maps, 2003).
Collection of beetles
Dung baited pitfall traps were used according to Steyskal et al. (1986). Each trap consisted
of a 2.5 qt. plastic container, 15 cm in diameter and 16 cm deep, buried to its rim in the soil.
Insects falling into the traps were killed by water during the warmer months (June–November,
and March–May), and a 1:4 ratio of antifreeze/water during the colder months (December–
February). The bait consisted of 225–250 g of cow dung wrapped in cheesecloth, tied with a
20 cm piece of polypropylene twine, and hung from a 13 mm square piece of hardware cloth
2004 SCARABAEOID BEETLES ON COW DUNG IN NEW JERSEY (COLEOPTERA) 335

placed on the top of the bucket. Plywood tiles were nailed into the ground above each trap in
order to discourage rainwater flooding. Five traps were put at intervals of 18 m on each transect
line that ran for 72 m (15 to 16 m intervals were used in the forest due to natural barriers and
accessibility) in each of the three locations: 1) HMF disturbed field (40830.0289N,
74833.8359W), 2) HMF old growth forest (40829.7539N, 74833.8529W), and 3) RUBF
(40828.5429N, 74826.2639W). Although similar studies have used ;9 m (Jameson, 1989), and
20 m intervals (Galante et al., 1995), 18 m intervals were chosen in this study due to the size of
the disturbed field (;110 m in length). Field and forest pitfall traps were positioned in their
sites parallel to each other, with forest pitfall #3 positioned next to a trail. Farm traps were
placed along the fence of the bovine farm and a maintenance road. Trap–1 was closest to the
barn and trap–5 was adjacent to a ;100 year old forest containing red and white oak as well as
sweetgum (Ehrenfeld, pers. comm., 2003).
Collections were made once a week from May, 2002 to May, 2003. Beetles were collected
in 15 Ziploc bags labeled forest 1–5, field 1–5, and farm 1–5, and were brought back to the lab
for preservation in vials containing 80% alcohol. Specimens collected during June and July
were pinned. All specimens were counted and identified at a later date. Voucher specimens are
in Prices’ personal reference collection, and have been deposited at the Rutgers University
Insect Museum and the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC. Books and
papers that were helpful in identifying the species were: Howden (1955), Vaurie (1955),
Matthews (1962), Howden and Cartwright (1963), Dillon and Dillon (1961), Cartwright
(1974), Gordon (1983), Edmonds (1994), Downie and Arnett (1996).
Alpha diversity
In the absence of general agreement on the most appropriate matrices of biodiversity, several
non-parametric indices were selected to measure species richness and diversity. The following
are explained in detail in Magurran (1988) where formulas for each appear. Species richness was
determined using Margalef’s and Menhinick’s indices. Both indices use a combination of S (the
number of species recorded) and N (the total number of individuals summed over all S species).
One advantage of these indices is the simplicity of the calculation, in addition to providing an
instantly comprehensible expression of diversity. Other indices used include the Shannon index
(an information theory index), Simpson’s index, McIntosh’s index, and Berger-Parker index, of
which the last three are generally referred to as dominance measures. Shannon index takes into
account the evenness of the abundance of species and assumes that individuals are randomly
sampled from an ‘infinitely large’ population, while Simpson’s index is less sensitive to species
richness and more sensitive to the most abundant species. McIntosh’s index is a dominance
measure where accuracy is strongly influenced by sample size, but that is numerically
independent of N. The Berger-Parker dominance index expresses the proportion of the total
catch that is due to the dominant species. Though there is little consensus on the best diversity
measure to use, the most widely used index is species richness (S), or, if species abundances are
taken into consideration, the Shannon and the Simpson’s indices (Magurran, 1988).
Correlation statistics
Correlations of the total monthly abundance of beetles collected in each site, with
temperature or precipitation were determined with SAS (1990), using Proc GLM.
RESULTS
A total of 15,206 beetles were collected from the HMF disturbed field, HMF old-growth
forest and RUBF (Table 1). Approximately twice as many individuals were collected in the
336 JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Vol. 112(4)

Table 1. Species collected from each site in rank order and their bimonthly abundance. Column intervals represent the field site, forest site and farm site,
respectively. Introduced species are indicated in BOLD. ‘‘*’’ indicates that none of the indicated species were collected during that time interval. Months marked
with a ‘‘^’’ represent five weeks of collection time, not four.
Species
J^/J A/S^ O/N^ D/J F/M^ A/M Totals Overall
Total
%of
IndividualsFld For Fm Fld For Fm Fld For Fm Fld For Fm Fld For Fm Fld For Fm Fld For Fm
Onthophagus hecate 2,206 231 17 1,649 1,934 13 173 1 1 * * * 9 * * 2,005 140 * 6,042 2,306 31 8,379 55.10%
Onthophagus
pennsylvanicus 1,173 1 * 1,207 54 4 11 * * * * * * * * 50 * * 2,441 55 4 2,500 16.44%
Onthophagus orpheus * 582 21 * 355 3 * * 2 * * * * * * * 84 * * 1,021 26 1,047 6.89%
Copris minutis 7 2 * 140 455 * 91 105 * * * * 53 43 * 82 48 * 373 653 * 1,026 6.75%
Aphodius terminalls * * * * * * 153 54 * 39 10 * 116 30 * 76 42 * 384 136 * 520 3.42%
Aphodius lividis * * 116 * * 232 * * 32 * * * * * * * * * * * 380 380 2.50%
Trox hamatus 219 80 * 13 10 * 1 * * * * * * * * 23 8 * 256 98 * 354 2.33%
Aphodius ruricola 35 74 6 2 30 * * 1 * * * * * * 1 71 12 4 108 117 11 236 1.55%
Aphodius manitobensis * * * 3 173 * * * * * * * * * * * * * 3 173 * 176 1.16%
Trox spp. * 17 1 4 57 * 5 14 * * 1 * 2 7 * 4 62 * 15 158 1 174 1.14%
Aphodius bicolor * * * 6 50 * 12 70 1 * * * * * * * * * 18 120 1 139 0.91%
Ataenius strigatus 23 19 9 2 11 11 1 2 * * * * * * * 1 * * 27 32 20 79 0.52%
Onthophagus taurus 2 * 5 6 * 46 * * 2 * * * * * * * * * 8 * 53 61 0.40%
Copris fricator 4 * * 2 6 * 1 1 * * * * 1 * * 5 10 * 13 17 * 30 0.20%
Phanaeus vindex 12 * * 12 * * 1 * * * * * * * * * * * 25 * * 25 0.16%
Aphodius rubripennis 1 8 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 10 * 1 18 * 19 0.12%
Onthphagus tuberculifrons * * * * * * * * * * * * 1 * * 13 1 * 14 1 * 15 0.10%
Ataenius spretulus * * 9 * 1 5 * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1 14 15 0.10%
Aphodius granarius * * 5 * * * * * * * * * * * 1 * * 4 * * 10 10 0.07%
Geotrupes semiopacus * * * * 4 * * 1 * * * * * * * * * * * 5 * 5 0.03%
Aphodius sp. 1 1 1 * 1 * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1 2 1 4 0.03%
Dialytes striatulus * * * * 4 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 4 * 4 0.03%
Aphodius distinctus * * * * * * 1 * * * * * 1 * * * * 1 2 * 1 3 0.02%
Aphodius fimetarius * * 2 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2 2 0.01%
Aphodius rubeolus 2 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2 * * 2 0.01%
Onthophagus striatulus * 1 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1 * 1 0.01%
TOTALS 3,685 1,016 192 3,046 3,135 314 448 245 40 39 11 0 183 80 2 2,330 417 9 9,733 4,918 555 15,206 100.00%
2004 SCARABAEOID BEETLES ON COW DUNG IN NEW JERSEY (COLEOPTERA) 337

field site as in the forest site, with many fewer still collected from the farm site. Onthophagus
hecate, accounting for 55.1% of the total individuals collected, was a dominant species in all
three sites. Onthophagus pennsylvanicus and Copris minutis were the second and third most
abundant species collected in the field site (Fig. 1A; Table 1), while O. orpheus and Copris
minutis were the second and third most abundant species collected in the forest site (Fig. 1B;
Table 1). Aphodius lividus, an imported species, was found to be the most abundant species
collected in the farm site, accounting for 68.47% of the total individuals caught on the farm
(Fig. 1C; Table 1).
The general diversity of each site is shown in Table 2. With the exception of Menhinick’s
index, which estimates the farm to have the highest diversity, all of the diversity indices
estimate the forest to have the highest diversity over all. All indices are in agreement that
the field site has the lowest diversity. In addition, all of the dominance indices estimate the
forest to have the lowest degree of dominance, and therefore the highest evenness of scarabs
(Table 2).
Ninety-three percent of the total individuals in all three sites were collected during the
months of June–September 2002 and, April and May 2003 (Table 1). Aphodius terminalis,
a winter species, was collected from October to May; it was the main species collected during
the winter months, and the only one collected in December and January (with the exception of
one Trox specimen). Aphodius species in the forest site demonstrated a clear seasonal pattern as
follows: A. rubripennis collected in May and June, A. ruricola collected from May to October,
A. manitobensis collected in August and September, A. bicolor collected from September to
November, and A. terminalis collected from October to May (Fig. 2).
Abiotic factors examined in this study include temperature and precipitation over the entire
year (Fig. 3A and B). The total annual precipitation for June 2002 to June 2003 was 134.8 cm
verses an average of 123.9 cm for the previous 30 years (1971–2000). Temperature had
a significant effect on the abundance of beetles collected each month in the farm site (Table 3).
None of the sites showed a significant correlation with precipitation.
A total of five introduced species were collected among the three sites; five in the farm site,
two in the field site and none in the forest (indicated in Table 1). In the farm site, 80% of the
total individuals collected were introduced species. Introduced species in the field only
accounted for 0.10% of the individuals collected.
Additional families of Coleoptera collected included; Staphylinidae, Carabidae, Silphidae,
Coccinellidae, Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae, Elateridae, Histeridae, Lampyridae, Byrrhidae,
Hydrophilidae, and Mordellidae. Individuals of the family Silphidae (Coleoptera) were col-
lected throughout the summer, with high abundances in July and August.
DISCUSSION
Coprophagous beetles are of ecological and economic importance as well as of general
interest for several reasons. In communities where they are common, coprophagous beetles play
an important role in the cyclic breakdown of organic wastes and in the redistribution
of biologically useful substances (Lindquist, 1933; Holter, 1979; Fincher et al., 1981), in
addition to helping to reduce densities of manure-breeding dipterans, many of which are pests
(Bornemissza, 1970; Fincher, 1990). Coprophagous beetles exhibit the instincts of maternity
and progeny protection (Lindquist, 1935; Halffter and Edmonds, 1982) making them useful for
studies dealing with sexual selection and intraspecific competition (Emlen, 1997; Rasmussen,
1994; Moczek and Emlen, 2000; Kotiaho, 2001). They have also been used extensively to
338 JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Vol. 112(4)

Fig. 1. Five most abundant dung beetle species collected at each site. A. Disturbed field site. Scale:
0 to 2,000. B. Old-growth forest site. Scale: 0 to 1,200. C. Bovine farm site. Scale: 0 to 140. Collection
started 30 May 2002 and was complete 30 May 2003.
2004 SCARABAEOID BEETLES ON COW DUNG IN NEW JERSEY (COLEOPTERA) 339

understand the nature of tropical rainforest diversity (e.g., Brown, 1991; Brown, 1997; Sutton
and Collins, 1991; Davis, 2000). This study examined three different habitats of scarabaeoid
dung beetles in order to determine species diversity and seasonal abundance, and to provide data
on the presence of introduced dung beetles in a disturbed field and old growth forest habitat.
Table 2. Diversity parameters for each site.
Field Forest Farm
Number of species 18 19 14
Totals scarabs collected 9,733 4,918 555
Species richness indices
Margalef’s diversity index (DMg) 1.851 2.117 2.057
Menhinick’s diversity index (DMn) 0.182 0.271 0.594
Information statistic index
Shannon index (H9)1.126 1.679 1.252
Evenness (E) 0.390 0.570 0.474
Dominance measures
Simpson’s index (D) 0.452 0.285 0.490
Simpson’s index reciprocal (1/D) 2.212 3.504 2.058
McIntosh’s index 0.331 0.473 0.316
Evenness (E) 0.429 0.604 0.413
Berger-Parker index (d) 0.621 0.469 0.685
1/d1.610 2.132 1.460
Fig. 2. Seasonality of five most abundant Aphodius species in the forest.
340 JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Vol. 112(4)

Species diversity
Overall, the forest site had the highest diversity and evenness of all three sites with 19
species collected, a Shannon index of 1.679 and a Shannon evenness index of 0.570. Eighteen
species were collected in the field site and 14 on the farm. Only six species were found in all
three sites: Onthophagus hecate,O. pennsylvanicus,Aphodius ruricola,A. bicolor,Aphodius
sp., and Ataenius strigatus. In the forest site O. hecate and O. orpheus accounted for 47 and
21%, of the beetles collected, respectively. In the field, Onthophagus hecate accounted for 62%
of the beetles collected. Onthophagus pennsylvanicus was the second most abundant species in
the field accounting for 26% of the beetles collected. Onthophagus hecate appears to be
a strong flier and was always the first to appear at the dung. Upon numerous collection trips to
HMF, O. hecate was found in high abundances between the hours of 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. on
Fig. 3. Weather data collected from Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist. (http://www.
climate.rutgers.edu/stateclim/njclimdata.html). A. Average minimum monthly temperature, average tem-
perature, and average maximum monthly temperature. B. Total monthly precipitation during study and
monthly average for 1971–2000.
2004 SCARABAEOID BEETLES ON COW DUNG IN NEW JERSEY (COLEOPTERA) 341

sunny days. Though Shubeck (1983) reported similar findings on O. hecate in a study dealing
with carrion beetle habitat preference (79% of the specimens were collected in the field),
Walker (1957) found that O. hecate prefer the forest habitats in Tennessee.
One factor that might explain a higher overall diversity of dung beetles in the forest site is
mammal diversity. Hanski and Cambefort (1991) and Davis (2000) suggest that areas which
are rich in mammals and in particular that have a significant biomass of large herbivores will
contain more species of dung beetles than those that have comparatively poor mammal faunas.
Another contributing factor might be the more moderate climate conditions in the forest, as
explained below. Two other factors may actually have reduced the abundance of individuals
collected in the forest pitfalls relative to those in other sites: the shorter distance between the
pitfall traps, and the number of times these pitfalls were pulled out of the ground by various
animals (most likely skunks and raccoons).
Aphodius lividus, an introduced beetle, was the dominant species found on the farm,
accounting for 68% of the total individuals collected. Native species that were collected on the
farm include O. hecate and O. orpheus.Onthophagus orpheus, a woodland species (Howden
and Cartwright, 1963) was only collected in the pitfall located next to the forest (#5). The low
abundance of beetles collected on the farm could be attributed to several factors: several to
many dung pads were produced each day on the farm site in addition to the bait that was used
for this study, the position of the pitfalls located next to a maintenance road, and several
additional farms located in the vicinity (e.g., goat farm). With the exception of adult yellow
dung flies (Diptera: Scatophagidae), which were present in all three sites during April, only
a few fly larvae (additional families of Diptera) were observed in the field and forest, while
several to many larvae were observed each week in the farm pitfalls during the summer months.
Hanski and Cambefort (1991) give two possible reasons why the colonization of a new
resource in open grasslands (in this case an open pasture) by native forest species may be
hindered: 1) the type of resource; and 2) the difference in climate between forests and open
grasslands. The former is unlikely to be of great significance, because cattle dung in forests is
readily colonized by native species (Hanski and Cambefort, 1991; see results). However, the
microclimate conditions in droppings on open pastures are probably so different from the
conditions in forests that species are unable to make the shift even after hundreds of
generations (Hanski and Cambefort, 1991). Landins’ (1961) measurements from southern
Sweden indicate that even in northern temperate regions, temperatures in droppings may
reach levels that are lethal to forest species, and he concluded that the distribution of
Table 3. Correlation coefficients of the total monthly abundance of beetles collected in each site, with
temperature or precipitation.
Field Forest Farm
Temperature
r 0.65 0.63 0.81
F 5.05 4.68 11.63
P 0.0594 0.0672 0.0143
Precipitation
r 0.06 0.18 0.01
F 0.02 0.21 0.00
P 0.8873 0.67 0.9732
342 JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY Vol. 112(4)

Aphodius ‘‘in different habitats does not depend on the kind of dung, but on the climatic
factors.’’ Additional authors have also drawn the same conclusion about other species of dung
beetle (Halffter and Matthews, 1966; Gordon and Cartwright, 1974; Fincher et al., 1970;
Oppenheimer, 1977).
Dung beetles display pronounced latitudinal patterns, and as one proceeds from subtropical
and tropical areas to grassland habitats in temperate areas, there is a large decrease in species of
the family Scarabaeidae (Hanski, 1986). While scarabaeoid dung beetle assemblages in
southern Africa may contain over 100 species (Doube, 1990), studies conducted in north tem-
perate regions typically have found only a small number of species (11 species, Jameson, 1989;
17 species, Galante et al., 1995). This was also demonstrated in this study with 26 species col-
lected. According to Davis (2000), pitfall traps collect 103more beetles than other methods of
collection. However, they may only capture 80% of the total species present in one particular
site. Though the same method of collection was used in each of the three above mentioned
north temperate studies, the addition of a third site and the duration of the study both appear to
have increased the number of species collected in the present case.
Seasonality
Dung beetles were collected during all months of the year and there were only five weeks
during that period when no beetles were collected. The discrete phenological patterns seen in
the forest Aphodius spp. were not surprising, as other studies have reported similar findings in
Aphodius (Hanski, 1980; Gittings and Giller, 1997; Gordon, 1983). According to Gordon
(1983), the eastern species of Aphodius can be divided into five categories based on food and
habitat preference, and Category I (species associated with deer dung) is the most important in
terms of numbers of species and biological significance. Several factors that restrict the beetles
to a certain habitat include moisture content and exposure to deer dung, latitude, thermal
factors, wind, and vagility (Gordon, 1983). Though Landin (1961) argued that fluctuations in
natural populations of dung-beetles depend on abiotic factors rather than on competition,
competition may also be a factor when food resources are limited, which is often the case with
deer dung (Gordon, 1983).
Temperature appears to have had a pronounced effect on the abundance of scarabs collected
in the farm site and may also have had a significant effect on the field and forest sites, though not
linear. There was a large abundance of beetles collected in all the sites from June to September
when temperatures were reaching 208C and above. However, there was a considerable drop in
species abundance in the field and forest site during July. Jameson (1989) reported similar
results in Western Nebraska, where beetle abundance in traps during this period (when
temperatures were exceedingly high) dropped from a high of 3,387 to a low of 268 individuals.
Precipitation, though not significant, was low (5.3 cm) for the month of July and species
abundance during this period decreased considerably. However, these two factors do not
discount the idea that the decrease in species abundance in July may have been due to
developmental phenology.
Introduced dung beetles
A total of five introduced species were collected in the farm and field site, while none were
collected in the forest. Two imported species collected in the field site were Onthophagus
taurus, and Aphodius distinctus. Field observations showed that O. taurus is present in the field
site in low numbers all summer (Price, unpubl. obs., 2002), though it was only collected in field
pitfalls when the abundance of individuals collected at the farm was high. In 1987, O. taurus
was released by the Department of Agriculture (Biological Control Group) at several sites in
2004 SCARABAEOID BEETLES ON COW DUNG IN NEW JERSEY (COLEOPTERA) 343

two counties of New Jersey and has since been reported in Burlington County, NJ and Suffolk
County, NY (Hoebeke and Beucke, 1997). In addition to the above introduced species three
additional species were collected in the farm site, including Aphodius lividus,A. fimetarius,
A. granarius.
Elton (1958) suggested that newly arrived species (introduced in this case) are opposed by an
array of competitors, predators, parasites, and diseases, termed an ‘‘ecological resistance.’’ This
resistance is lowered in the simplified setting of disturbed habitats. Additionally, Elton argued
that most of the really successful invaders were ones that, for a variety of reasons, were able to
cross major barriers because of their relationship with Homo sapiens. These assumptions are
supported by the present study.
Implications for conservation efforts
Biodiversity surveys provide fundamental information needed for conservation planning,
protected area justification and design, and development of management plans (Spector and
Forsyth, 1998). Recent studies have shown that dung beetles may be excellent biodiversity
indicator taxa (Spector and Forsyth, 1998; Davis et al., 2001; Goldstein and Simmons, 2002).
Their high degree of habitat specialization and unambiguous response to deforestation makes
them useful for predicting the outcome of habitat alteration as a result of factors such as fire
management, road construction, logging (Spector and Forsyth, 1998), and agriculture. In
Goldstein and Simmons’ (2002) study on the scarabaeid fauna of the Massachusetts offshore
islands, it was reported that structurally complex communities such as shrubby heathlands and
grassy shrublands support a greater species richness as well as greater richness of uncommon
species than homogenous agriculturally derived areas and other ‘‘pure grasslands.’’ The present
study is also consistent with previous data on the importance of structurally complex habitats to
preserving insect diversity.
In conclusion, species collected in this study demonstrate patterns of habitat preference as
well as distribution throughout the year. Using several diversity measures, the forest was
estimated to have the highest diversity over all. Though five species of introduced dung beetles
were collected in this study, they were not collected in high numbers and none were collected in
the forest habitat. Future studies should include additional methods of collection (e.g., flight
intercept traps), as well as several different types of animal dung and malt as bait.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks go to my advisor, Michael May, for his comments and suggestions on the manuscript.
I also thank John LaPolla for numerous discussions about this research and I thank the individuals
of the Rutgers University bovine farm for allowing me to use their facilities. This research was
supported by the William Hutcheson Memorial Forest Summer Research Grant.
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Received 22 October 2003; accepted 30 October 2004.
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