A checklist of Indian Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

Abstract

A review of recent literature on dung beetles reflected that the systematics of families and subfamilies of Scarabaeoidea are in disarray, particularly their phylogeny and hierarchical level, and the situation seems to remain unresolved until all its speciose groups get a comprehensive treatment. In Scarabaeinae, however, now a 12-tribe system-six for rollers and six for tunnellers, based on recent indepth morphological and behavioral studies combined with supporting molecular evidences, has more or less been accepted globally. Many new genera, mostly carved out of some of the old and larger ones, had also been erected. Consequently, it became inevitable to review and update the 80-years old ‘Fauna of British India’ by Arrow (1931) on Indian Scarabaeinae which had become outdated. Accordingly, the taxonomy of the Indian dung beetle fauna was reviewed and known species until now were collated, listed and reallocated among the nine tribes now recognized for Indian fauna. New accepted names for many genera have also been included assigning them to their respective taxa. Despite the exclusion of about 70 odd species (from the total of 354 species) reported in ‘Fauna of British India’ from other areas (i.e., Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, etc.) outside the present Indian region, the final tally from India is around 420 species in 38 genera.