@article {1048,
	title = {From coprophagy to predation: a dung beetle that kills millipedes},
	journal = {Biology Letters},
	volume = {5},
	number = {2},
	year = {2009},
	note = {ISI Document Delivery No.: 421PXTimes Cited: 0Cited Reference Count: 17Cited References: BEDOUSSAC L, 2007, CHEMOECOLOGY, V17, P163, DOI 10.1007/s00049-007-0375-y CAMBEFORT Y, 1991, DUNG BEETLE ECOLOGY, P22 CANO EB, 1998, COLEOPTS BULL, V52, P174 DARWIN C, 1859, ORIGIN SPECIES MEANS DEVRIES PJ, 2000, BIOTROPICA, V32, P712 EISNER T, 1998, P NATL ACAD SCI USA, V95, P1108 HERTEL F, 1998, COLEOPTS BULL, V52, P105 LARSEN TH, 2005, BIOTROPICA, V37, P322, DOI 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2005.00042.x LARSEN TH, 2006, COLEOPTS BULL, V60, P315 LEVIN DA, 2004, NEW PHYTOL, V161, P91, DOI 10.1046/j.1469-8137.2003.00921.x LOSOS JB, 2003, NATURE, V424, P542, DOI 10.1038/nature01814 MONTGOMERY SL, 1982, ENTOMOL GEN, V8, P27 NYFFELER M, 2001, ECOL ENTOMOL, V26, P617 PECK SB, 1982, CAN J ZOOL, V60, P1624 SCHMITT T, 2004, J CHEM ECOL, V30, P731 SIMPSON G, 1953, MAJOR FEATURES EVOLU VILLALOBOS FJ, 1998, COLEOPTS BULL, V52, P101Larsen, Trond H. Lopera, Alejandro Forsyth, Adrian Genier, Francois},
	month = {Apr},
	pages = {152-155},
	type = {Article},
	abstract = {The dung beetle subfamily Scarabaeinae is a cosmopolitan group of insects that feed primarily on dung. We describe the first case of an obligate predatory dung beetle and contrast its behaviour and morphology with those of its coprophagous sympatric congeners. Deltochilum valgum Burmeister killed and consumed millipedes in lowland rainforest in Peru. Ancestral ball-rolling behaviour shared by other canthonine species is abandoned, and the head, hind tibiae and pygidium of D. valgum are modified for novel functions during millipede predation. Millipedes were killed by disarticulation, often through decapitation, using the clypeus as a lever. Beetles killed millipedes much larger than themselves. In pitfall traps, D. valgum was attracted exclusively to millipedes, and preferred injured over uninjured millipedes. Morphological similarities placing D. valgum in the same subgenus with non-predatory dung-feeding species suggest a major and potentially rapid behavioural shift from coprophagy to predation. Ecological transitions enabling the exploitation of dramatically atypical niches, which may be more likely to occur when competition is intense, may help explain the evolution of novel ecological guilds and the diversification of exceptionally species-rich groups such as insects.},
	keywords = {BEHAVIOR, COLEOPTERA, DEAD, Deltochilum valgum, dung beetle, ecological transition, EVOLUTION, guild, millipede predation, Peru, SCARABAEIDAE},
	isbn = {1744-9561},
	url = {<Go to ISI>://000264371900003},
	author = {Larsen, T. H. and Lopera, A. and Forsyth, A. and Genier, F.}
}
