Nest construction and larval behaviour of Onitis belial and Onitis ion (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae)

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Abstract
1. Female beetles working alone or in cooperation with a male buried dung to make brood masses. O.belial brood masses were packed close together in clusters; each mass was constructed as a horizontal thick‐walled tube of dung which was filled with a dung sausage containing two to six eggs. O.ion made vertical sausage‐shaped brood masses with one to four eggs.2. The larvae of both species were able to survive in artificial brood balls as well as in multi‐egg brood masses because of their ability to repair larval chambers with their own excrement.3. The multi‐egg brood mass of Onitis has probably evolved from a simple one‐egg brood mass. It does not resemble the underground dung mass from which brood balls are made by certain Coprini.