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1. The impacts of climate change on secondary seed dispersal in dung beetles

   Duerr, Nathan; Sheldon, Kimberly S (May 2024, Integrative and Comparative Biology)

   Dung beetles, which move and bury the feces of vertebrates, are major drivers of ecosystem processes and provide crucial ecosystem services, including secondary seed dispersal. Dung beetles bury seed-containing dung in food caches or in brood balls used for breeding purposes, but little is known about how this behavior will be affected by climate change. We utilized field manipulations to investigate the effect of simulated climate change—including simultaneous increases in temperature mean and variance—on the seed dispersal behavior of two tunneling dung beetle species, Phanaeus vindex and Onthophagus taurus. We placed single adult females into either control or greenhouse treatments along with temperature loggers. We mixed glass beads of three sizes into cow dung to mimic seeds, provided beetles with the dung, and then allowed them to bury dung for either six or nine days. At the end of each trial, we recorded information on dung deposits, including the type (i.e., food cache or brood ball), number, size, burial depth, and the amount of each bead size found in the deposit. We found differences in burial depths of brood balls and food caches within species, as well as differences in the size and amount of beads buried between species. Exposure to higher temperatures resulted in brood balls being buried deeper across species, but did not change the burial depth of food caches. 

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2. Higher heat acclimation ability in a non-native versus a native dung beetle (Onthophagus spp.)

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-024-03511-2  

   Mamantov, Margaret A; Sheldon, Kimberly S (January 2025, Biological Invasions)
3. Higher heat acclimation ability in a non-native versus a native dung beetle (Onthophagus spp.)

   https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xc2  

   Mamantov, Margaret A; Sheldon, Kimberly S (January 2025, Dryad)

   Invasive species may be more capable of adjusting to climate warming via phenotypic plasticity than native species since plasticity is thought to increase invasion success. Physiological plasticity via acclimation is one way in which organisms can adjust their thermal tolerance in response to temperature change, but few studies have addressed whether invasive species have greater thermal plasticity compared to native congeners. Here we investigated whether thermal plasticity via temperature acclimation varies between two Onthophagus dung beetle species, the non-native Onthophagus taurus and the native Onthophagus hecate, collected from both Florida and Tennessee, USA. We expected the non-native O. taurus to demonstrate greater plasticity than the native O. hecate; we also predicted that beetles from Florida would have reduced plasticity since their environment is less thermally variable. To examine thermal plasticity, we measured shifts in time until loss of function (i.e., leg mobility) following acclimation to hot or cold temperature treatments. We found that non-native O. taurus from Florida acclimated to warm temperatures, increasing time to loss of function following warm treatments; unexpectedly, O. taurus from Tennessee showed no warm acclimation ability. Onthophagus hecate did not acclimate to warm temperatures in either location. In contrast, both species showed similar levels of cold acclimation. Taken together, our results suggest that the non-native species, O. taurus, will be more capable of using physiological adjustments to respond to climate warming than the native species, O. hecate. 

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4. Cephalodesmius carminya, a new flightless dung beetle species from the Central Mackay Coast, Queensland.

   https://doi.org/10.54102/ajt.h85un  

   Ebert, Kathryn M; Gunter, NIcole L (March 2024, Australian Journal of Taxonomy)

   A new species from the genus Cephalodesmius Westwood (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) is described from the Cental Mackay Coast bioregion, Queensland extending the northern range of the genus. Cephalodesmius carminya Ebert & Gunter new species is known from two localities in the Pine Mountain, Carminya Forest Reserve and 2.5 km west of Eungella dam. A key to the four species of Cephalodesmius is provided and we discuss morphological similarities between Cephalodesmius and its closest relative Canthonosoma Macleay. 

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5. Dung beetles show metabolic plasticity as pupae and smaller adult body size in response to increased temperature mean and variance

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinsphys.2021.104215  

   Morgan Fleming, J.; Carter, Amanda W.; Sheldon, Kimberly S. (May 2021, Journal of Insect Physiology)

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