Arthropods Associated with Fresh Cattle Dung Pats in Minnesota

Abstract

A study of the arthropod fauna in cattle dung pats at an old forest site and an old prairie site in Minnesota during 1984 revealed 108 arthropod species in 19 families, including 66 Coleoptera, 29 Diptera, 8 Hymenoptera, and 5 Acarina. Except for Scathophaga stercoraria (L.) which dominated during spring and fall at the forest site, the faunas at the 2 sites were generally similar. Twenty-one species not previously recorded from dung plus 12 new to the north central states were encountered. The latter included the parasitoid, Aleochara tristis Gravenhorst. Of the dung-feeding flies, S. stercoraria, Haematobia irritans (L.), and Neomyia cornicina (F.) were most numerous. Aphodius haemorrhoidalis (L.) and Sphaeridium lunatum F. were the most abundant large burrowing beetles. Philonthus cruentatus Gmelin was the most abundant predator, and Aphaereta pallipes (Say) was the most abundant parasitoid. Parasitoids and predators coincided temporally with horn fly and face fly. Three Hymenoptera and 3 Staphylinidae were reared from 11 muscoid species. Principal hosts were the native sarcophagids Ravinia querula (Walker), R. derelicta (Walker), R. lherminieri (R.-D.), and the cosmopolitan S. stercoraria and N. cornicina.