New records, distributional notes and species diversity of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) from Pothohar Plateau of Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The fauna of Scarabaeinae in Pothohar plateau of Punjab, Pakistan, is very diverse and has not been studied thoroughly. In the following paper, this subfamily of dung beetles was studied, using specimens collected during 2010–2011 across Pothohar plateau. The study presented taxonomic account of 14 species of dung beetles belonging to 5 genera and 3 tribes collected from 13 different localities of four districts i.e. Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Chakwal and Attock. Among this diverse fauna, four species, Oniticellus pallipes (Fabricius, 1781), Oniticellus spinipes (Roth, 1851), Oniticellus cinctus (Fabricius, 1775) and Drepanocerus setosus (Wiedemann, 1823) represent new records for dung beetle fauna of Pakistan. While, seven species, Onthophagus catta (Fabricius, 1787), Oniticellus pallens (Oliver, 1789), Onitis subopacus (Arrow, 1931) [3], Onitis virens (Lansberge, 1875), Onitis castaneus (Redtenbucher,rn1848), Onitis Crassus (Sharp, 1875) and Chironitis indicus (Lansberge, 1875) are recorded first time from Pothohar plateau. Among the 14 species collected, Onitis Crassus found to be the most abundant in the Pothohar plateau with highest percentage (15.26%), while Oniticellus pallens was the least abundant species with percentage (0.76%). The species diversity vary slightly in three districts except Attock which contained only one specie Drepanocerus setosus, and this species was confined to Attock district only.