S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 47/1-2. (Budapest, 1986)
dung-inhabiting beetle communities, in the number of species and of their abundance and in the dominance relationships in the course of the growth season. The spring, the summer and the autumn aspects are well separable. The dominant species of the spring aspect are: Aphodius distinctus (O.F.Müller, 1776) (a species more or less neutral to community conditions), A. prodromus (Brahm. 1790) and A. sabu- licola C.G. Thomson, 1868. The first two species occur in all kinds of dry pastures, the last one is found mainly in dry pastures influenced by continental climatic effects (particularly on salty steppes) only. The characteristic species of the spring aspect are the species Aphodius biguttatus Germar, 1824, A. circumcinctus W. L. Schmidt, 1840 and Onthophagus vitulus (Fabricius. 1777). The species A. biguttatus occurs in dry pastures influenced by sub-Mediterranean or continental climatic effects, the species Onthophagus vitulus is more characteristic for dry pastures under continental climate. The species Aphodius circumcinctus occurs in Hungary exclusively on grassy steppes and pastures with salty soil and continental climate. The dominant species of the summer aspect are Aphodius ictericus (Laicharting, 1781) and Onthophagus ruficapillus Brullé, 1832. Both species are rather neutral as regards the composition of dung-beetle communities; though the centre of their occurrence is in dry grassy communities (Festuco-Bromea) but owing to their wide valency and high vagility they enter numerous other plant associations (e.g. meadows, wet pastures). The summer aspect has hardly any characteristic species: the cenological character of the accessorial species is similar to that of the dominant species. The autumn aspect of the beetle communities inhabiting sheep droppings is similar to their spring aspect: the dominant species are mainly the same species (which are more or less neutral as regards the communities of dung-inhabiting beetles): Aphodius distinctus , A. prodromus . On the other hand, the dominance of A. consputus Creutzer, 1799 is characteristic only for the autumn aspect. Aphodius serotinus (Panzer, 1799) is a characteristic species of the autumn aspect. DISCUSSION At the beginning of the growth season those species appear the earliest, which overwinter as imagos: Aphodius consputus, A. distinctus, A. fimetarius (Linnaeus, 1758), A. melanostictus W. L. Schmidt, 1840, A. prodromus, A. sabulicola . The number of species and their abundance are comparatively low at beginning, but both of them will increase quickly, the ratio of the changes is in the order of ten as for the number of species and it is in the order of hundred to thousand as for the abundance. The dominance relationships are very much uneven in the earliest days of the growth season; these days can usually be characterized by an absolute dominance of a single species. For example, Bogács, 24th April: Aphodius prodromus : D = 90.2 %, A. distinctus has only D = 7.23 %, the dominance values of all the other species are almost negligible (D: 0.43 to 0.85 %). In the advance of time the abundance of the formerly subordinate species is also increasing, and the unevenness in the dominance relationships decreases; a codominance of several species becomes characteristic; for example, Pusztamonostor, 25th April: Aphodius sabulicola : D = 50.10 %, A. prodromus : D = 36.90 %, A. distinctus: D = 12.02 % ( A. sabulicola . a species which appears later, became the superior). At the beginning of the growth season, but somewhat later than the former species, those species also appears which overwinter in the last larval stage: Aphodius biguttatus . A. circumcinctus , A. erraticus (Linné, 1767), A. ictericus , A. immundus Creutzer, 1799, A. lugens Creutzer, 1799, A. luridus (Fabricius, 1775), A. paracoenosus Balthasar et Hrubant, 1960, A. scybalarius (Fabricius, 1781), Onthophagus nuchicornis (Linnaeus, 1758), O. ruficapillus. O. vitu lus . etc. Some species are active from spring to the beginning of summer, namely Aphodius bi guttatus , A. circumcinctus , A. granarius , A. luridus , A. paracoenosus , Onthophagus vitulus ; the other species are usually found in the dry pastures until the end of summer or till autumn. The former group reaches a peak in their abundance usually at the middle or at the end of spring, the latter group has the highest abundance rather in the middle or at the end of summer and the species of the latter group do not play a significant role in the spring aspect. The moisture from rainfalls and snow in autumn and in winter accumulates in the soil of the dry pastures since the evaporation is low owing to the low temperature, therefore, the watercontent of the soil is high. Sheep droppings have a comparatively low water-content even when fresh and their surface is large compared to their mass; besides, the rate of desiccation of sheep droppings influenced by the temperature of their environs, the soil moisture, the relative air humidity, etc. At the beginning of growth season in early spring sheep droppings remain wet, i.e.
