Flightless dung beetle

{{Short description|Genus of beetles}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Flightless dung beetle.JPG

| image2 = Cape Flightless Dung Beetles (Circellium bacchus) on a ball of elephant dung ... (52658371792).jpg

| image2_caption = Both from Addo Elephant National Park in Eastern Cape, South Africa

| genus = Circellium

| parent_authority = Latreille, 1825

| species = bacchus

| authority = (Fabricius, 1781)

| display_parents = 3

}}

The flightless dung beetle (Circellium bacchus) is a species of dung beetle endemic to a few areas of South Africa, including the Addo Elephant National Park, Amakhala Game Reserve and the Buffalo Valley Game Farm.{{Cite web |url=http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/beetles/scarabaeidae/scarabaeinae/circellium_bacchus.htm |title=Circellium bacchus (Flightless dung beetle, Addo flightless dung beetle) |publisher=Biodiversity Explorer |accessdate=October 16, 2010}} It is the only species in the genus Circellium.{{cite journal |author=Steven L. Chown, Pierre Pistorius & Clarke H. Scholtz |year=1998 |title=Morphological correlates of flightlessness in southern African Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae): testing a condition of the water-conservation hypothesis |journal=Canadian Journal of Zoology |volume=76 |issue=6 |pages=1123–1133 |url=https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/z98-036 |doi=10.1139/z98-036 }} The loss of flight allows the beetle to use the empty space below the elytra as a carbon dioxide storage tank, creating a unique breathing mechanism which conserves water, a valuable survival trait in the arid regions it lives in.{{cite journal |author=Roger Santer |year=2003|title=Dung Beetles Turn in Wings for a Long, Dry Walk |journal=Journal of Experimental Biology |volume=206 |pages=1261–1262 |url=http://jeb.biologists.org/content/206/8/1261.2.full.pdf |format=PDF |doi=10.1242/jeb.00269}}{{cite journal |author= Marcus J. Byrne and Frances D. Duncan |year=2003 |title=The role of the subelytral spiracles in respiration in the flightless dung beetle Circellium bacchus |journal=Journal of Experimental Biology |volume=206 |pages=1309–1318 |url=http://jeb.biologists.org/content/206/8/1261.2.full.pdf |format=PDF |doi=10.1242/jeb.00250|doi-access=free }}

File:Flightless Dung Beetle Circellium Bachuss, Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa.JPG

The species was originally widespread in Southern Africa, but it only survives in the few areas mentioned above; as such, it qualifies as an IUCN vulnerable species. Its vulnerability is exacerbated by a number of other factors, including the fact that its habitat is under threat by agriculture and human activity, that it has low breeding capacity as well as low dispersability (as a consequence of being flightless), and that its survival is strictly dependent on a number of vertebrates (particularly elephant and buffalo) that are also experiencing a decrease in population.

File:Dung beetle working-001.ogv

The flightless dung beetles mostly feed on elephant or buffalo faeces, but they have been recorded to also feed on dung from other species such as rabbits, baboons, antelopes, and ostriches.