Article for Oxford University Alumni Magazine

Varley Gradwell Travelling Fellowsip in Insect Ecology: Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) Research Project to Zambia, 2005.

Project title: ‘Dung beetles (Scarabaeinae): Diel flight activity, response to bait size, bait type, and habitat structure in central Zambia'

Oxford University Alumni Magazine 2005

Working alongside the Hope Entomological Collections, Oxford University Museum, and the Scarabaeinae Research Network (ScarabNet).

Dung beetle research is a current hot topic in the field of entomology. Dung beetles play a keystone role in the removal of dung, via relocation for feeding as well as for oviposition. This behaviour substantially increases soil fertilisation and aeration, thus enhancing soil nutrient recycling rates. It has also been suggested that dung beetles play a pivotal role in reducing the transmission of a number of parasites, and the removal of dung from intensive farmland is essential in order to prevent pasture fouling. Furthermore, dung beetles have an important role as secondary seed dispersers, and thus in plant regeneration. Agricultural intensification is increasing dramatically in Zambia, and as it snowballs, the role that dung beetles play will become increasingly important. However, at the same time, dung beetles are threatened by not only the physical soil compaction of intensive agriculture, but also by the increase in farm animal medication, including ivermectins.

There is very little published literature on this subject, and there appears to be no published data from Zambia. There is also no standardised trapping procedure for dung beetles and thus studies are often difficult to compare.

I shall travel to Zambia this coming September for a three month period, trapping at three sites: intensive grazing land, non-intensive grazing land and grassveld (semi-natural land). Using pitfall-trapping procedures, I shall also be able to measure optimum bait size and bait type, as well as diel flight activity patterns. Observations on dung clearance rates will also be carried out at each site.

After sorting the samples in the Hope Entomological Collections, Oxford University Museum, the data will be entered into the ScarabNet database and thus this research will provide baseline data to be used in the production of a handbook of standard methods which is to be published in 2009. This research should also shed some light on the ecological impacts of farming intensification.

Back to Zambia