Dung Beetles of Africa: Diversity, Ecological Importance and Conservation

Dung beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) are among the most ecologically important insects, yet they face growing threats from global climate change, habitat destruction and farming practices. By burying thousands of tonnes of dung from livestock and wild animals – and, in deep rural areas, human faeces – every day, they provide vital ecosystem services, fertilizing and aerating soils, improving water penetration, and suppressing pestiferous flies and human and livestock parasites, thereby helping to limit the spread of disease. Africa is central to the evolutionary history of dung beetles. Here they radiated alongside the herbivorous mammals of the savannas and, over millions of years, dispersed from their mainly southern African origins through Eurasia into the Americas and southwards to Australasia. Today, Africa supports the world’s richest dung beetle diversity, with about half of the global fauna. The beetles also have a remarkable cultural history as early as 6,000 years ago, and lasting for 2,000 years, Ancient Egyptians revered them as sacred beings that represented various gods including of the sun and the afterlife. African dung beetles comprise 15 major groups (tribes), around 100 genera and 2,000-3,000 species, each of which exhibits distinctive breeding behaviour either rolling dung balls for burial, tunnelling and burying dung beneath the dung source, feeding and breeding within it, or exploiting the nests of other species. This book explores dung beetle biology, diversity and conservation for professional entomologists, academics, students, farmers, conservationists and veterinarians, as well as amateur naturalists and enthusiasts. Hundreds of superb photographs reveal an extraordinary diversity of form, sculpture and colour, demonstrating that, although dung beetles inhabit apparently squalid surroundings, they are anything but squalid.