Book description
This book describes the evolutionary and ecological consequences of
reproductive competition for scarabaeine dung beetles. As well as
giving us insight into the private lives of these fascinating creatures,
this book shows how dung beetles can be used as model systems for
improving our general understanding of broad evolutionary and ecological
processes, and how they generate biological diversity. Over the last few
decades we have begun to see further than ever before, with our research
efforts yielding new information at all levels of analysis, from whole
organism biology to genomics. This book brings together leading
researchers who contribute chapters that integrate our current knowledge
of phylogenetics and evolution, developmental biology, comparative
morphology, physiology, behaviour, and population and community ecology.
Dung beetle research is shedding light on the ultimate question of how
best to document and conserve the world's biodiversity. The book will be
of interest to established researchers, university teachers, research
students, conservation biologists, and those wanting to know more about
the dung beetle taxon.
Leigh Simmons
was born and educated in the UK, and is currantly Professor of
Evolutionary Biology at the University of Western Australia. His
research interests lie in all aspects of reproductive biology, from the
evolution of sperm form and function, to mate searching and courtship behaviour.
James Ridsdill-Smith was born and educated in the UK but
carried out all his research in Australia working for CSIRO
Entomology. He has been developing biological and ecological solutions
to various pest problems and 15 years involved in the biological
control of dung with scarabaeine dung beetles.
