Two New Dung Beetle Species Found in Mexico

A Mexican-Italian research team discovered two new dung beetle species in Mexico while carrying out a biodiversity study in conserved forests and cattle-grazing sites. The new species are described in the journal ZooKeys.
As their name suggests, dung beetles are insects that feed mainly on mammal faeces. For decades, an international research team, led by Dr. Gonzalo Halffter, has studied dung beetles across the world, especially in Mexico. As a consequence, the Mexican species are some of the best-known. However, Dr. Halffter and his team are not interested exclusively in dung beetles, but also in the effects of land-use change, ecosystems modification by human activities, and conservation biology.
Raising livestock is one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide, which makes the present discovery particularly impressive. A large amount of land is used for livestock farming in Mexico, so dung beetles are essential in cleaning up the environment.
The first to discover these new dung beetles was Victor Moctezuma, a student of Dr. Halffter’s at the Instituto de Ecología of Mexico.=read more =http://entomologytoday.org/2016/03/16/two-new-dung-beetle-species-found-in-mexico/