S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 47/1-2. (Budapest, 1986)

MATERIAL AND METHODS In Hungary the dry pastures are covered with several plant communities (and their geographical variants). The pastures on loess (Cynodonto-Poetum angustifoliae) have become very scarce by now. These pastures - and the more wide-spread sandy pastures (Potentillo-Festucetum pseudovinae) - are seldom used for sheep pastures. Our sampling areas were selected in three stands of dry mountain-slope pastures and of the abundant salty pastures of Hungary. Short diagnoses of the sampling areas: Bogács (North Hungary): 200-250 m a.s.l., on rhyolite-tuff of volcanic origin (base rock), dry mountain-slope pasture (Cynodonto-Festucetum pseudovinae) formed as a consequence of deforestation and intensive grazing; a pasture for ca. 500 sheep. Dömsöd, Apajpuszta (Central Hungary): 90-100 m a.s.l., a one-time inundation area of the river Danube, its sandy soil became very salty secondarily. This grassy salty steppe (LepidioFestucetum pseudovinae) of ca. 200 hectares is a pasture for ca. 250 sheep of mixed-aged. Pusztamonostor (Central Hungary): 90-100 m a.s.l., a pasture with slightly salty sandy loess soil, originally blown out by wind from inundation areas of the Danube and its influent streams; it is mainly a grassy salty steppe (Achilleo-Festucetum pseudovinae), with patches of a loess pasture community (Cynodonto-Poetum angustifoliae). Here 600 ewes and young breeding animals are pastured on an area of 120 hectares, which is grazed, irrigated and mown in the growth season. Table 1 Air temperature at soil level and temperature of soil at a depth of 5 cm (°C) 24 March 2 5 March 11 April 4 June 23 September 6 October Bogács A: 17 - - - - A: 18 S: 10.5 S: 15 Dömsöd, - - A: 15 A: 34 A: 21.5 Apajpuszta S: 11 S: 27 S: 18 Pusztamonostor - A: 20 - A: 27 A: 21 S: 13 S: 25 S: 18 On the sampling areas five 10 x 10 m square plots each were staked out (cf. PAPP, 1985) randomly at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the growth season of 1983. In these plots the droppings utilizable for the beetles were counted and together with the underneath soil they were funnelled. Synchronously with the quantitative sampling beetles were also singled in order to catch representatives of the species with very low abundance and also for an estimation of the constant minimiarea of the coprophagous beetle communities characteristic for given dates and areas. The size of the sampling area of this kind was selected in accordance with this aim.Except for extreme situations an area of 5 x (10 x 10) m^ was found to be satisfactory; i.e. an area of this size is larger than the constant minimiarea . Table 1 contains the data of the air temperature at soil level and of the soil temperature at a depth of 5 cm (cf. PAPP 1985). RESULTS Data of the beetles collected are summarized in Table 2. The specimens (5779 ex.) collected belong to 50 species; their majority is coprophagous (Hydrophilidae: 5 species, Scarabaeidae: 28 species), a comparatively low number of predatory species in dung was found (Staphylinidae: 13 species, Histeridae: 1 species). Some species were collected, which occur in dung, under dung or in the underneath soil just occasionally: Dromiasa truncatella (Linnaeus, 1761), Hesperophilus galli- cus (Gravenhorst, 1806) and Tachyporus hypnorum (Fabricius, 1775) (Staphylinidae), Tytthaspis sexdecimpunctata (Linnaeus, 1758) (Coccinellidae), Otiorhynchus raucus (Fabricius, 1777) (Curculionidae); these latter species are not true dung inhabiting species. In the dry pastures of Hungary there are seasonal changes in the species-composition of the