Dung Beetles of Africa was established in order to provide taxonomic assistance to Scarab workers engaged in the study and identification of African dung beetles. This initiative aims at complementing existing information resources regarding the diverse African dung beetle fauna by providing:
- A picture catalogue with representative species from each dung beetle tribe.
- Taxanomic information and links to keys to the tribes, genera and the species.
- Notes on African dung beetle ecology.
Please bear in mind that recent phylogenetic analysis, revisions and the discovery of new Scarabaeinae species all contribute to the ever evolving character of Scarab taxonomy. Especially at generic and subgeneric levels, many groups were either synonymised with others, invalidated or changed in status. It is thus practically impossible to assign a definite number of genera to a certain tribe or number of species to a certain (sub)genus. Some countries and regions have hardly been sampled whereas other countries (eg. South Africa, Senegal, Mozambique) have received much more attention.This is why distributional data is indicatory, based on collection records rather than proposing definate boundaries to species distribution.
Rob & Erik Stronkhorst – March 2013
The dung beetles of Hlane Royal National Park
The present study examines the dung beetle community associated with two wild pachyderm ungulates (White rhino and elephant) in the Hlane Royal National Park in the Swaziland lowveld. Under assistance of Mr. T. Reilly and his rangers, research was conducted by the authors in 1996 and 1997 during the course of 12 months.
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