The dung beetle fauna of the Big Bend region of Texas (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) Author Edmonds, W. D. text Insecta Mundi 2018 2018-07-27 642 1 30 journal article 10.5281/zenodo.3708186 f503e20e-e3fb-41ac-bf17-bdaf221bc7c7 1942-1354 3708186 55CCB217-771C-499D-9110-36F143C375C5 Phanaeus MacLeay The genus Phanaeus embraces about 55 species distributed from the United States southward through Mexico and Central America into all but the southern cone of South America; of these, the 35 or so species included in the subgenus Phanaeus comprise a phyletic group virtually confined to North and Central America ( Edmonds 1994 ; Edmonds and Zidek 2012 ). The United States is home to six species, four of which reside in Texas , one in the Big Bend. The nesting behavior of Phanaeus is described by Halffter and Matthews (1966) and Halffter and Edmonds (1982) . It involves the elaborate subterranean construction of a pear-shaped brood ball consisting of a spherical core of larval food (usually dung) encased in a thick casement of compressed soil. The large majority of the members of the genus are diurnal coprophages; many are quite common in pasture ecosystems.