Indigenous and Exotic Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae and Geotrupidae) Collected in Florida Cattle Pastures

Abstract

AbstractDung beetles are important to healthy cattle pasture ecosystems as they provide for nutrient recycling, removal of waste products from the soil surface and assist in the reduction of pestiferous flies. Numerous exotic dung beetles have been accidentally or intentionally introduced to the North American continent and several of these have become established. We surveyed for the presence and distribution of dung beetles on four cattle farms in north central Florida over a 3.5-yr period using cattle dung-baited pitfall traps placed at least every 3 wk. In total, 39 species from 20 genera were identified with a total of 62,320 beetles collected in traps. Although none were intentionally released in Florida, six exotic species were present. Significant differences were observed in species captures among the three most sampled farms, with beetle species dominance patterns differing among the farms. The native species, Onthophagus tuberculifrons Harold, was the most commonly collected species, and both it and the introduced Labarrus pseudolividus Balthasar, had mass emergences. Four of the six most commonly collected species were exotics and included, in order of abundance, L pseudolividus, O. gazella (F.), O. taurus (Schreber), and Euoniticellus intermedius (Reiche).