Journal
JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS
Volume 73, Issue 12, Pages 1090-1094Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2009.04.009
Keywords
Assimilation; Desert detritus; Fungal biomass; Scarabaeidae; Water balance
Categories
Funding
- Carlsberg Foundation
- University of Copenhagen
- South African National Research Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Dry conditions limit microbial decomposition of plant litter in deserts, which leaves a primary role to detritivorous macroarthropods. In the sandy and strip along the west coast of South Africa, such detritivores include the large scarabaeid dung beetle Pachysoma glentoni. Highly unusual among dung beetles, this species collects surface litter and drags it into an underground storage and feeding chamber which is abandoned after 6-7 days. Fresh stores for single beetles and for breeding pairs (mean depths: 30 and 39 cm) contained about 1.1 and 2.9 g organic matter, respectively. Using ergosterol as a biomarker for fungal biomass, we tested the hypotheses that (1) the dry detritus takes up water underground; (2) this promotes fungal growth on the detritus, and (3) fungi are the main food of the beetles. These hypotheses were disproved, but the stored litter, including floral remains, was shown to have relatively high quality (mean atomic C:N ratio: 35) and the beetles assimilated about 60% of it. Estimated weekly water gain per beetle, supplied entirely by the food, was about 0.6 g. Our results highlight unique nutritional adaptations to survival in deserts without the usual dung beetle food: wet dung of large herbivores. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available