Necrophilous insects occupy an ecologically interesting niche because carrion is a highly desirable but ephemeral food source. Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae) within temperate regions are frequently found at carrion, but little is known about their attraction to this resource. Are dung beetles attracted to the carrion itself or are they indirectly attracted due to the exposed gastrointestinal contents? We investigated the association between dung beetles and carrion by examining the distribution of dung beetles on the cranial and caudal end of rat carcasses, delimiting a resource more attractive to necrophagous insects (cranial end) from a resource more attractive to coprophagous insects (caudal end). Dung beetle distribution on rat carcasses was compared with the distribution of carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae), which serve as a null model of distribution patterns for a taxon known to directly target carrion. Results demonstrated that dung beetles show higher attraction to the cranial end of rat carrion. A similar distribution pattern was found in carrion beetles, suggesting that similar resources were targeted. When dung beetles were grouped by behavioral guilds, rollers and tunnelers also shared this pattern of greater abundance at the cranial end, but dwellers showed no discernible difference.

中文翻译：

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正面还是反面？粪甲虫（鞘翅目：Scarabaeidae：Scarabaeinae 和 Aphodiinae）对腐肉的吸引力

嗜尸昆虫占据了一个生态有趣的生态位，因为腐肉是一种非常理想但短暂的食物来源。温带地区的粪甲虫（鞘翅目：Scarabaeidae：Scarabaeinae 和 Aphodiinae）经常在腐肉中发现，但人们对它们对这种资源的吸引力知之甚少。粪甲虫是被腐肉本身吸引还是由于暴露的胃肠内容物而间接吸引？我们通过检查蜣螂在大鼠尸体颅骨和尾端的分布来研究蜣螂和腐肉之间的关联，将对食尸昆虫更有吸引力的资源（颅端）与对食粪昆虫更有吸引力的资源（尾端）划定界限。 . 将大鼠尸体上的粪甲虫分布与腐肉甲虫（鞘翅目：Silphidae），它作为已知直接针对腐肉的分类群的分布模式的无效模型。结果表明，蜣螂对大鼠腐肉的颅端具有更高的吸引力。在腐肉甲虫中发现了类似的分布模式，表明类似的资源是目标。当粪甲虫按行为公会分组时，压路机和挖隧道的人在颅骨末端也有这种更丰富的模式，但居民没有表现出明显的差异。