Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment Vol. 47, No. 1, April 2012,53–60 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Abundance and diversity of coprophagous beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) caught with a light trap in a pasture area of the Brazilian Cerrado Alfredo Raúl Abot a , Anderson Puker b *, Tiago Ledesma Taira a , Sérgio Roberto Rodrigues a , Vanesca Korasaki c & Harley Nonato de Oliveira d a Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso do Sul, Aquidauana, MS, Brazil; b Departamento de Entomologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, Brazil; c Departamento de Biologia, Setor de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, MG, Brazil; d Embrapa Agropecuária Oeste, Dourados, MS, Brazil (Received 15 July 2010; accepted 30 January 2012) Coprophagous beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) play an important ecological role in grazing agroecosystems, especially for the removal and bury of herbivore feces. In this study we identified coprophagous Scarabaeidae species found in an area of Brachiaria brizantha (Poaceae) pasture in the Brazilian Cerrado, analyzing community structure with environmental variables in the area. The insects were captured with a light trap from November 2007 to October 2008 every 15 days, totaling 24 hours of sampling/month. A total of 2541 individuals were collected and from two subfamilies (Aphodiinae and Scarabaeinae), 17 genera and 33 species. The numbers of individuals and species captured were positively correlated with monthly precipitation. Os besouros coprófagos (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) desempenham importante papel ecológico em agroecossis- temas de pastagens, com ênfase na remoção e enterrio das fezes de herbívoros. Nesse estudo nós identificamos as espécies de Scarabaeidae coprófagos que ocorrem em área de pastagem de Brachiaria brizantha (Poaceae) no Cerrado brasileiro, analisando a estrutura da comunidade com as variáveis ambientais da área. Os insetos foram capturados com uma armadilha luminosa a cada quinze dias de novembro de 2007 a outubro de 2008, totalizando 24 horas de amostragem/mês. Um total de 2.541 indivíduos foram capturados e estão distribuídos em duas sub- famílias (Aphodiinae e Scarabaeinae), 17 gêneros e 33 espécies. O número de indivíduos e de espécies capturadas foram positivamente correlacionados com a precipitação mensal. Keywords: agro-pastoral landscape; Brazil; dung beetle; ecology; insect community; Scarabaeoidea Introduction Tropical pastures have conditions extremely different from native forests, including higher temperatures, less shade, and an absence of predators and refuge loca- tions (Martínez-Garza & González-Montagut 1999). The destruction of natural environments for the cre- ation of pastures causes alterations in the structure and composition of communities, which may suffer the loss of species not adapted to the new environmental conditions (Medri & Lopes 2001). Pasture areas commonly present a large quan- tity of cattle feces which contains abundant organic nutrients that are used by foragers (Anduaga 2004). Despite the benefits, bovine manure can be consid- ered a problem. Various arthropod species develop in fecal mass and some are considered pests, such as the horn fly Haematobia irritans (Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera: Muscidae). Selection of populations resis- tant to insecticides justifies the growing need for implementation of alternative programs for fly control *Corresponding author. Email: pukeragro@gmail.com (Marchiori et al. 2001). One alternative for the removal of bovine feces from pastures and its incorpora- tion into the soil is the use of coprophagous beetles (Scarabaeidae, principally Scarabaeinae). The feeding and reproduction of most of these species involves the allocation of food sources in tunnels dug into the soil, which removes the reproductive medium of the flies (Bornemissza 1970; Ridsdill-Smith & Matthiessen 1981; Flechtmann, Rodrigues, Araújo, et al. 1995). The activity of these beetles also promotes the degra- dation of organic materials and cycling of nutrients in the soil (Halffter & Matthews 1966; Halffter & Edmonds 1982; Yokoyama et al. 1991; Yamada et al. 2007). Scarabaeinae includes about 5000 species and Aphodiinae has about 1850 species (Hanski & Cambefort 1991). Aphodiinae forms an important part of the guild of coprophagous beetles (Arellano & Halffter 2003). In southern South America 27 Aphodiinae species occur (Smith & Skelley 2007). ISSN 0165-0521 print/ISSN 1744-5140 online © 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01650521.2012.662846 http://www.tandfonline.com