Dung beetles are an ecologically important group of insects globally, but the ecology of the Australian fauna is poorly known. Here, we report on the first ecological study of dung beetles in an Australian tropical savanna, documenting species composition, food preferences and responses to fire. Dung beetles were baited using dung from five types of vertebrates as well as mushrooms. We sampled at nine plots subject to experimental fire regimes (three replicates each of high fire severity, moderate fire severity and unburnt over 15 years) at the Territory Wildlife Park near Darwin. Our samples were comprised entirely of nine native species of Onthophagus. Dog dung was the most attractive bait, recording all nine species and nearly 80% of all individuals, whereas no beetles were recorded at either wallaby or magpie‐goose dung. Dung beetle abundance was highest under high fire severity and was negatively correlated with the cover of woody vegetation, a result driven by the two most common species, O. minsiculus and O. nr. quadripunctulatus. Our results indicate that Onthophagus is the dominant genus in dung‐beetle assemblages of monsoonal Australia, as it is in open habitats of the Australian wet tropics. All our species of Onthophagus are relatively small (≤10 mm body length) and are ‘tunnellers’, storing dung and other food resources in tunnels dug immediately below the food source. Such an overwhelming dominance by small tunnellers does not occur in African savannas, reflecting the far lower availability of large mammalian dung in Australia.

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚热带稀树草原的粪甲虫：种类组成，食物偏好和对实验火势的反应

粪便甲虫在全球范围内是重要的生态昆虫，但是澳大利亚动物区系的生态却鲜为人知。在这里，我们报道了澳大利亚热带稀树草原上的be类甲虫的首次生态研究，记录了物种组成，食物偏好和对火的反应。用五种脊椎动物和蘑菇中的粪便诱捕甲虫。我们在达尔文附近的领地野生动物公园的九个样地中进行了抽样试验，这些样地受​​实验性火灾制度的影响（高烈度，中度烈度和超过15年未烧成三个重复）。我们的样品全部由九种食虫属组成。狗粪是最诱人的诱饵，记录了所有9种动物，几乎占所有个体的80％，而在小袋鼠或鹅粪中均未记录到甲虫。蜣螂丰在高火程度最高，与木本植被的盖呈负相关，由两个最常见的品种，驱动的结果O. minsiculus和Ò。nr。 四边形。我们的研究结果表明，嗡是季风澳大利亚蜣组合的优势属，因为它是在澳大利亚潮湿的热带开放的栖息地。我们所有的食虫类相对较小（体长≤10毫米），是“隧道虫”，将粪便和其他食物资源存储在直接位于食物来源下方的隧道中。在非洲的稀树草原上，小型掘土机的这种压倒性优势并未发生，这反映出澳大利亚大型哺乳动物粪便的利用率大大降低。