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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Observations on nesting activity, life cycle, and brood ball morphometry of the Bordered Dung Beetle Oniticellus cinctus (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) under laboratory conditions Amar Paul Singh, Kritsh De, Shagun Mahajan, Ritwik Mondal & Virendra Prasad Uniyal 26 July 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 9 | Pages: 14137–14143 DOI: 10.11609/jot.4023.11.9.14137-14143 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. 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Partner Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2019 | 11(9): 14137–14143 Observations on nesting activity, life cycle, and brood ball morphometry of the Bordered Dung Beetle Communication Oniticellus cinctus (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) Scarabaeidae) under laboratory conditions ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM 1 2 3 4 Amar Paul Singh , Kritsh De , Shagun Mahajan , Ritwik Mondal & OPEN ACCESS Virendra Prasad Uniyal 5 1,2,5 Department of Landscape Level Planning & Management, Wildlife Insttute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Utarakhand 248001, India. 1,4 Department of Zoology, University of North Bengal, Darjeeling, West Bengal 734013, India. 3 Department of Zoology, Alpine Insttute of Management and Technology, Dehradun, Utarakhand 248007, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] (corresponding author), 5 [email protected] Abstract: The nestng actvity, life cycle, and brood ball morphometry of the dung beetle Onitcellus cinctus (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) were studied under laboratory conditons for the frst tme in India. The females made a brood chamber within the dung mass provided, wherein they made brood balls to lay eggs. The life cycle includes egg, larva (three instars), pupa, and adult stages. The total duraton for the development was about one month. The study found that there was a signifcant diference present in the brood ball diameter (except in the frst and second instars) and brood ball weight (except in the second instar and pupa) of the six life cycle stages. It was also found that brood ball weight and diameter have a signifcant positve correlaton as well as a linear relatonship. Keywords: Morphometry, nidifcaton, scarabaeid beetle, Scarabaeinae, weight-diameter relatonship. DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4023.11.9.14137-14143 Editor: Hemant V. Ghate, Modern College of Arts Science and Commerce, Pune, India. Date of publicaton: 26 July 2019 (online & print) Manuscript details: #4023 | Received 23 January 2018 | Final received 23 June 2019 | Finally accepted 02 July 2019 Citaton: Singh, A.P., K. De, S. Mahajan, R. Mondal & V.P. Uniyal (2019). Observatons on nestng actvity, life cycle, and brood ball morphometry of the Bordered Dung Beetle Onitcellus cinctus (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) under laboratory conditons. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(9): 14137–14143. htps:// doi.org/10.11609/jot.4023.11.9.14137-14143 Copyright: © Singh et al. 2019. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: No funding was received for this study. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Amar Paul Singh was a postgraduate (zoology) student and he is presently working as a researcher. His research interests include diversity, taxonomy, ecology and behaviour of insects partcularly in beetles. Kritish De is presently working as a researcher and his research interests include diversity and ecology of insects. Shagun Mahajan was a postgraduate (zoology) student and she is interested in the feld of biodiversity and ecology. Ritwik Mondal is working as an assistant professor. He has previous research experience in the feld of mosquito ecology, vector biology and fsh toxicology. His current research interest is in the feld of molecular taxonomy of arthropods and fsh as well as in the physiological and genotoxic efects of insectcides and pestcides on fsh. Virendra Prasad Uniyal is working as Senior Professor and Scientst G. He is a Fellow of The Royal Entomological Society, London. His research interests include ecology and systematc of insects, bioindicators, biodiversity surveys and ecological monitoring in western Himalayan protected areas. Author contributon: APS—collecton of samples, laboratory work, and preparaton of the manuscript; KD—laboratory work, data analysis, and preparaton of the manuscript; SM—collecton of samples and laboratory work; RM—designing the study, directng and supervising laboratory work and data analysis, and preparaton of the manuscript; VPU—designing the study, directng and supervising laboratory work and data analysis, and preparaton of the manuscript. Acknowledgements: Authors are thankful to the Director and the Dean, Wildlife Insttute of India, Dehradun and Dr V.P. Sharma, Principal, Alpine Insttute of Management and Technology, Dehradun for their support and for providing necessary facilites for the study. 14137 Nestng, life cycle and brood ball of Bordered Dung Beetle Singh et al. INTRODUCTION tray. Fresh cow dung was provided and the old dung replaced daily. The coleopteran insects (beetles) belonging to the Afer about six days from the release of the adults subfamilies Aphodiinae and Scarabaeinae under the in the rearing trays, the nest constructon occurred. A family Scarabaeidae are commonly called dung beetles total of 50 brood balls (10 from each pair in each tray) as they feed primarily on mammalian dung and also were selected for our study; the rest of the brood balls use it for providing nestng and food for their larvae. were removed from the tray. Regular observatons were The beetles of the subfamily Scarabaeinae are well- conducted once a day (at 08.00h) by opening the brood represented insects in the tropical regions (Filgueiras et balls to observe the development of the individual from al. 2009). Both sexes of the adults were identfed with egg to adult stage. The opening in the brood balls was the help of published taxonomic keys (Chandra & Gupta immediately sealed afer observaton with the help of 2013). fresh dung. The weight and diameter of the brood balls Globally, some studies have been done to understand were taken on the fnal day of each developmental stage nidifcaton of dung beetles. Klemperer (1982a,b,c, by Kerro laboratory analytcal balance (accuracy 0.01gm) 1983a,b,c, 1984) studied the nestng behaviour of and Mitutoyo digital vernier calliper. several species of dung beetles. Biscoe (1983) studied One-way ANOVA followed by post hoc Dunn’s test the efects of ovarian conditon on the nestng behaviour was performed to fnd out the presence of a signifcant of Copris diversus Waterhouse, 1891. Sato & Imamori diference (if any) in the diameter and weight of brood (1987) studied the nestng behaviour of the African balls between lifecycle stages. Pearson’s product- Ball-roller Kheper platynotus (Bates, 1888). Edwards & moment correlaton coefcient (r) was calculated Aschenborn (1987) studied paterns of nestng and dung to explore the strength of associaton between the burial in Onits dung beetles. Davis (1989) studied nestng diameter and weight of brood balls between lifecycle of the Afrotropical Onitcellus and its evolutonary trend stages. Linear regression model between diameter and from soil to dung. weight of brood balls in diferent life cycle stages was So far, there are no studies to understand the calculated. All the statstcal analysis was performed morphometry of brood balls (the round-shaped ball using R version 3.3.1 (R Core Team 2016). made up of dung constructed by the female to lay eggs within it) as well as the weight-diameter relatonship of diferent life cycle stages of Onitcellus cinctus from RESULTS India. The life cycle of Onitcellus cinctus includes egg, three larval (frst, second, and third instar) stages, pupal MATERIAL AND METHODS stage, and adult. The body of the adult (Image 1A) is dorsoventrally The study was carried out from the frst week of compressed and oblong and the colour is shiny black. May to the end of the second week of June 2017 for The head is shining, smooth, and without any carina a period of about six weeks. The adults (both males (elevaton or ridge of the cutcle). The antennae are and females) of Onitcellus cinctus were collected from 8-segmented. The scutellum is visible. The pronotum is dung that was 2–3 days old using hand-sortng method smooth and a deeply impressed median longitudinal line and were transported to the laboratory of the zoology is present upon its posterior half. The elytra (external department, Alpine Insttute of Management and and sclerotzed forewings) are deeply striated and each Technology, Dehradun. elytron has a pale yellow external border.