Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 56(2): 257–258, junho, 2012

The family Scarabaeidae is widely distributed, with around 7000 species in the world (Schoolmeesters et al. 2011). The subfamily Scarabaeinae contains detritivorous beetles, known as “dung beetles”, which make, roll, and bury portions of organic material that serves as substrate for ovi-position, as well as food for the larvae. The resource alloca-tion behavior of these beetles has an important ecological role, because it removes and reinstates organic material in the soil (Halffter & Matthews 1966). The main eating habits are saprophagy, coprophagy, and necrophagy (Hanski & Cambefort 1991), which evolved in this sequence from the availability of resources along the evolutionary trajectory of the group (Davis et al. 2002). According to the same author, coprophagy in the group possibly occurred between the Me-sozoic and Cenozoic, the period when mammals began to dominate the earth. Necrophagy in dung beetles is a derived condition that probably arose in tropical forests along with climate changes and species extinction of large vertebrates which were the excrement producers that gave support to the coprophagous habit of this group (Halffter & Matthews 1966). Necrophagy is poorly recorded for the genus Scybalocanthon Martínez, 1948. Scybalocanthon moniliatus (Bates, 1887) was reported on the carcasses of skunk, peccary, rat, snake, and slot