Assessing the effect of habitat, location and bait treatment on dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in southern Alberta, Canada

Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are members of the coprophagous insect community and are important dung degraders in pasture ecosystems. To assess their distribution in North America, I created a checklist of over 300 beetle species known to colonize dung (Chapter 2). To assess the affect of habitat and location on dung beetle diversity, I conducted sampling at Purple Springs Grazing Reserve and Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (Chapter 3). Each habitat and location was dominated by different species for both sampling years. The affect of bait treatment and age on the attractiveness of the coprophagous insect community was assessed using fresh and frozen dung baits, with frozen baits being more attractive for the first three days (Chapter 4). To expedite sample processing, regression equations were developed for three treatments (wet, air-dried, and oven-dried weight), which allow for counts of individuals to be estimated by their bulk weight (Chapter 5)