Systematic study of Scarabaeidae

Abstract

The present studies were carried out to investigate the dung beetles‟ fauna in the selected parts of northern Pakistan including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KPK) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The area is diverse and virgin for its flora and fauna pertaining to different habitats, especially the dung beetles in subfamily scarabaeinae. The study was conducted in the three selected ecological zones including alpine zone, montane temperate forest and tropical deciduous forest. These zones were further divided into sub-zones for comprehensive collection of dung beetles fauna. The systematic study revealed the presence of ten genera and twenty-four species from the study area including Digitonthophagus gazelle, D. bonasus, Heliocopris midas, H. bucephalus, Onthophagus (Phanaeomorphus) gagates, O. (Altonthophagus) kukunoren-sis, O. (Palaeonthophagus) marginalis, O. (Palaeonthophagus) nuchicornis, O. (s. str.) proletarius, O. (Coloboonthophagus) tragus, Onitis falcatus, O. lama, O. philemon, O. subopacus, O. virens, Catharsius molossus, C. pithecius, Metacatharsius inermis, Copris repertus , C. sacontala, C. punctatus, Scarabaeus sacer, Cheironitis arrowi and Gymnopleurus flagellates. Out of these, eights species were newly recorded for Pakistan including Onthophagus gagates, Onthophagus kukunorensis, O. (s. str.) proletarius, He-liocopris bucephalus, Copris punctatus, C. repertus, C. sacontala and Onitis lama. The diagnosis of each genus, identification keys to genera and species, colored photographs and geographical distribution maps for each species along with scale length size were provided.