Digitonthophagus gazella

ColeopteraAmarygmus sp Anoplognathus sp Aphanestes gymnopleura Buprestidae Cerambycidae Coleoptera (Beetles) Curculionidae Digitonthophagus gazella Dung Beetle Eretes australis Helea scaphiformis Johannica gemellata (Pandorea Leaf Beetle) Ladybirds (Beetles) Lepidiota Lucanidae Neospades sp Lycidae Omorgus Paropsine Beetle Paropsisterna sp Pittosporum Leaf Beetle (Lamprolina impressicollis) Protaetia fusca Pterohelaeus sp Rhipiceridae Scarabaeidae Xylophilostenus octophyllus

The species Digitonthophagus gazella, from the family Scarabaeidae (Scarab beetles), it is in the subfamily Scarabaeinae, known collectively as the Dung Beetles. It was promoted from the subgenus to genus Digitonthophagus level in 1959. It causes confusion when it is referred to with the outdated name of Onthophagus gazella

The common names for Digitonthophagus gazella include Gazella Scarab, Gazella Dung Beetle and Brown Dung Beetle.

Digitonthophagus gazella is up to 11 mm in size and a body with that is two-toned in colour, the front portion dark brown and the back half a lighter brown. Often the elytra has cloudy markings. The legs have distinctive dark oval patches on their undersides when the beetle is turned over. The male are larger then the female and have a set of straight ‘gazelle-like’ horns protruding from the back of the head (these are reduced in smaller males making them hard to distinguish from females). The males also have longer, narrow, more curved front legs than females.

The genus name is derived from the Greek onthos, meaning “dung”, and phagos, meaning “eater”.

This species native distribution is Afro-Asian. It has been introduced to many countries around the world to help remove cattle dung from pastures. This has led to many of those introduced populations to become naturalised in the country they have been introduced to.

Digitonthophagus gazella was introduced into Australia as part of the CSIRO Australian Dung Beetle project. In 1966 a pilot project commenced to import foreign dung beetles into northern Australia to assess prospects for the biological control of dung in this region. The first large-scale release of dung beetles by CSIRO was in 1967, then followed by others over the next three summers. In all a total of 275 000 beetles of four species were let loose, mainly between Broome in Western Australia and Townsville in Queensland. The Onthophagus gazella made extraordinary progress and caused spectacular dung dispersal, colonising an area 400 kilometres by 80 kilometres in just two years.²