BODY-SIZE, ABUNDANCE, AND GEOGRAPHICAL-DISTRIBUTION OF AFROTROPICAL DUNG BEETLES (COLEOPTERA, SCARABAEIDAE)

Local and regional abundances of Afrotropical dung beetle species, as well as their regional and continental distributions, have been found to depend on their average individual fresh weight. At the local and regional scales, small-bodied species are numerically more abundant than their larger relatives, but large-bodied species have a larger total biomass and control a larger proportion of available resources. At the regional scale, large dung beetle species occur in fewer localities than small ones, but, at the continental scale, geographical distribution is wider.