http://pulseplanet.com/sci-diaries/sd_kevina/7 Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:27:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 http://pulseplanet.com/sci-diaries/sd_kevina/7/comment-page-1#comment-53 Kevina Vulinec Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:57:16 +0000 http://abakuss.com/blog-kevina/?p=7#comment-53 In answer to Linda: some of them certainly are. There is one species in Florida that lives on gopher tortoise dung in the tortoises' deep burrows. On the flip side, there are species that will eat almost any dung, plus carrion, plus rotten fruit and maybe fungi. In between, there are species with a range of likes and dislikes. Most of the species of dung beetles in the Amazon are generalists; however, there are a few extreme specialists (one lives in the fur of sloths and waits for the sloth's once a week trip to the ground to defecate!). It seems that the beetles we collect (somewhere around 50 species) are attracted to primate dung, human dung, and also pig dung. It makes a certain amount of sense that the dung of these species is the most attractive to dung beetles as the biomass of monkeys and peccaries is higher than most other mammals in this part of the Amazon. So, more to eat! In answer to Linda: some of them certainly are. There is one species in Florida that lives on gopher tortoise dung in the tortoises’ deep burrows. On the flip side, there are species that will eat almost any dung, plus carrion, plus rotten fruit and maybe fungi. In between, there are species with a range of likes and dislikes. Most of the species of dung beetles in the Amazon are generalists; however, there are a few extreme specialists (one lives in the fur of sloths and waits for the sloth’s once a week trip to the ground to defecate!). It seems that the beetles we collect (somewhere around 50 species) are attracted to primate dung, human dung, and also pig dung. It makes a certain amount of sense that the dung of these species is the most attractive to dung beetles as the biomass of monkeys and peccaries is higher than most other mammals in this part of the Amazon. So, more to eat!

]]> http://pulseplanet.com/sci-diaries/sd_kevina/7/comment-page-1#comment-52 Linda Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:54:12 +0000 http://abakuss.com/blog-kevina/?p=7#comment-52 Are dung beetles "poo specific"? Any ideas how they came to select the monkeys you are studying for their foraging? Are dung beetles “poo specific”? Any ideas how they came to select the monkeys you are studying for their foraging?

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