@article {1482,
	title = {Biogeographical groups in a southern African, winter rainfall, dung beetle assemblage (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) - consequences of climatic history and habitat fragmentation},
	journal = {African Journal of Ecology},
	volume = {31},
	number = {4},
	year = {1993},
	note = {1993ArticleEnglish},
	pages = {306-327},
	abstract = {A study was made of the effects of climate and habitat fragmentation on the biogeographical composition of the dung beetle fauna (Scarabaeinae, Coprinae) in the southwestern Cape, winter rainfall region of South Africa. The fauna was studied at eleven sites and 45 species were recorded. Three geographical species groups (1, 2, 3) were defined for 38 of the species using multivariate techniques. The other seven species have dissimilar widespread distributions and are treated as a fourth group (4). Two groups (1, 3) comprising 31 and three species, respectively, are either endemic or largely restricted to the winter and bimodal rainfall regions of southern Africa. They show extreme numerical dominance in indigenous shrubland but are also well-represented in pasture. Groups 1 and 3 comprise primarily day-flying taxa with an overall peak in abundance during the moist spring. These endemic groups are probably associated with the inception of winter rainfall climate during the Pliocene +- 3 million years before present. The other two groups (2, 4) have a distribution extending into the adjacent summer rainfall region. In the southwestern Cape, they are found predominantly in recently-created pastures. They include equal numbers of day and dusk/night-flying species with peaks in abundance mainly during the dry summer. Most species of these two groups are taxonomically distant from endemic taxa. Frequency of Group 2 relative to climate was greatest in the westerly summer rainfall region one whereas that of Group 4 was greatest in the south-easterly bimodal rainfall region. As most members of Groups 2 and 4 show limited penetration into indigenous shrubland, the findings suggest that these summer-active groups dispersed from the summer rainfall into the winter rainfall region via western and eastern coastal corridors in response to the thinning or clearance of the formerly ubiquitous native shrubs.},
	keywords = {Animalia-, Arthropoda-, Biogeography- (Population-Studies), Climatology- (Environmental-Sciences), Coleoptera- (Coleoptera, Coleoptera-: Insecta-, Digestive-System (Ingestion-and-Assimilation), Ecology- (Environmental-Sciences), Invertebrata-, Physiology-},
	author = {Davis, Adrian L. V.}
}
@article {1485,
	title = {Habitat fragmentation in southern Africa and distributional response patterns in five specialist or generalist dung beetle families (Coleoptera)},
	journal = {African Journal of Ecology},
	volume = {32},
	number = {3},
	year = {1994},
	note = {1994ArticleEnglish},
	pages = {192-207},
	abstract = {Effects of habitat fragmentation on spatial distribution patterns of dung beetles were studied in the southwestern Cape in the winter rainfall region of South Africa, where indigenous shrubland has been extensively replaced with crops and pastures. The six most abundant higher taxa of dung beetles showed a range from higher to low discrimination in response to spatial variables based on the results for principal components analysis (PCA) (Scarabaeidae, Aphodiidae, Histeridae, Staphylinidae: predatory subfamilies, Hydrophilidae, Staphylinidae: Oxytelinae). Vegetation type was the principal determinant of spatial distribution whereas annual temperature and rainfall were of much lesser importance. Across the taxonomic sequence from higher to low spatial discrimination, there was a trend from higher to lower proportions of indigenous shrubland specialists. This taxonomic sequence to decreasing spatial discrimination was also related to increasing percentage taxonomic similarity between species assemblages of the higher taxa in the southwestern Cape and those in the distant Transvaal, summer rainfall region PCA (variance) reflected this relationship between local and subcontinental scales of spatial distribution better than a generalization/specialization index (niche width). Species which were widespread on a subcontinental scale (n=25), showed greater pasture associations in the southwestern Cape than in the Transvaal. These trends in spatial distribution patterns indicate that, in response to habitat fragmentation, there has been proportionally greater, recent recruitment of species into southwestern Cape assemblages from spatially less discriminating higher taxa than from spatially more discriminating taxa.},
	keywords = {Animalia-, Aphodiidae- (Coleoptera-), Arthropoda-, Behavior-, Biogeography- (Population-Studies), Climatology- (Environmental-Sciences), Coleoptera-: Insecta-, Ecology- (Environmental-Sciences), Histeridae- (Coleoptera-), Hydro, Invertebrata-, Physiology-},
	author = {Davis, Adrian L. V.}
}
@article {1489,
	title = {Daily weather variation and temporal dynamics in an Afrotropical dung beetle community (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)},
	journal = {Acta Oecologica},
	volume = {16},
	number = {6},
	year = {1995},
	note = {1995 (1996)ArticleEnglish},
	pages = {641-656},
	abstract = {The influence of weather on dung beetle community dynamics was studied in grassland, open woodland and thickets in Gauteng Province, South Africa. To avoid seasonal effects, sampling was restricted to 18 days during November and December. An examination was made both of dung beetle responses to physical variables and of daily changes in their community structure between habitat patches (dung-baited traps). Recruitment of general adults showed a weaker response to physical variables (rainfall, soil hardness, radiant heat, sub-surface soil temperature) than activity of mature adults which was most frequently correlated to rainfall. There was a range in species responses to rainfall from much higher proportional abundance on moist days to somewhat greater abundance on drier days. Such variable responses led to daily changes in the proportional abundance of moist-adapted and dry-tolerant species groups. Daily changes from low to high species richness were also associated with increased rainfall. These changes led to increased diversity and greater functional complexity of the numerically dominant species component. Abundance of most numerically dominant species increased from low to high species richness. Their rank position either increased, decreased or remained similar. It is concluded that during the summer rainy season, incidence of rainfall is an important determinant of temporal dynamics in dung beetle community structure between habitat patches.},
	keywords = {Animalia-, Arthropoda-, Climatology- (Environmental-Sciences), Coleoptera- (Coleoptera-), Coleoptera-: Insecta-, Digestive-System (Ingestion-and-Assimilation), Ecology- (Environmental-Sciences), Invertebrata-, P, Physiology-, Plantae-Unspecified: Plantae-},
	author = {Davis, Adrian L. V.}
}
@article {1924,
	title = {An intercontinental comparison of dung beetle diversity between two mediterranean-climatic regions: Local versus regional and historical influences},
	journal = {Diversity and Distributions},
	volume = {5},
	number = {3},
	year = {1999},
	note = {Using Smart Source ParsingArticleEnglish},
	pages = {91-103},
	abstract = {The species richness of biological communities is influenced by both local ecological, regional ecological, and historical factors. The relative importance of these factors may be deduced by comparison between communities in climatically and ecologically equivalent, but geographically and historically separate regions of the world. This claim is based on the hypothesis that community processes driven by similar local ecological factors lead to convergence in species richness whereas those driven by differing regional or historical factors lead to divergence. An intercontinental comparison between the winter rainfall regions of South Africa and the Iberian Peninsula showed that overall species richness of dung beetles was dissimilar at local, subregional and regional scales in Scarabaeidae s. str. but similar at all scales in Aphodiinae. Removal of species widespread in the summer rainfall region of Africa or the temperate region of Europe (regional component) resulted in dissimilarit y in species richness of mediterranean endemics at all scales in both dung beetle taxa. However, the lines joining each set of species richness values were parallel which may indicate similarities in processes between different mediterranean climatic regions despite slight differences in latitudinal range. The dominant pattern of dissimilarity or non-convergence may be related primarily to intercontinental differences in regional biogeographical and evolutionary history (faunal dispersal, glaciation effects in relation to geographical barriers to dispersal, speciation history, long-term disturbance history). The limited pattern of similarity or convergence in overall species richness of Aphodiinae may be a chance result or primarily related to intercontinental similarities in local ecological factors.},
	keywords = {Animalia-, Animals-, Aphodiinae- (Coleoptera-), Arthropoda-, Arthropods-, Biodiversity-, Coleoptera-: Insecta-, dung-beetle (Coleoptera-), Iberian-Peninsula (Europe-, Insects-, Invertebrata-, Invertebrates-, Population-Studies, Scarabaeidae- (Coleoptera-)},
	author = {Lobo, Jorge M. and Davis, Adrian L. V.}
}
