Evolutionary biology and conservation of dung beetles

Th e book consists of fi ve major sections: (A) Evolution and ecological suc- cess of dung beetles; (B) Physiological and behavioural ecology of dung beetles; (C) Phylogeny of the Scarabaeinae; (D) Historical biogeography of the Scara- baeinae and its physical and biotic drivers; (E) Conservation of dung beetles. All have a phylogenetic basis, i.e. how evolution and relationships of the groups aff ect each of the aspects under discussion. Consequently, we believe that the sections are coherent. What we have chosen not to cover in the book is the “ecology” (i.e. population and community ecology) of dung beetles. Th is aspect was dealt with in Hanski and Cambefort, but with more recent developments in the fi eld, and the evolution of “macro-ecology”, a huge new discipline has emerged, and dung beetles have been included in such studies. Th ese aspects, however, remain to be synthesised. In retrospect, writing a book of this nature was never going to be easy. We enthusiastically set about writing some sections on aspects of research about which we knew very little so the chances that we wouldn't do them justice were good, but in view of the wealth of information currently available about various aspects of dung beetle evolutionary biology and conservation, we felt justifi ed in attempting it. We, furthermore, attempted to balance the content of the book in such a way that the information contained would be of interest to both research specialists on dung beetle natural history but also to agriculturalists and con- servationists as well as to interested lay groups. We are generally satisfi ed with the result and believe that we have managed to bring together various relevant aspects of the chosen disciplines. We trust that the reader will agree with us