O. Merkl szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 69. (Budapest, 2008)

ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK Volume 69 2008 pp. 221-228. Will the elephant dung flies go extinct after the elephants disappear? L. PAPP Department of Zoology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, and Animal Ecology Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1088 Budapest, Baross u. 13, Hungary. E-mail: lpapp@nhmus.hu Abstract - Extinction of a single large-bodied species is often presumed to provoke co-extinction of several parasite, mutualist, nest dwelling and coprophagous species. This paper examines whether potential loss of African Elephants, the largest terrestrial animals, would necessarily cause co-extinction of the species-rich dipterous fauna currently living on elephant dung. We have taken semi-quantitative samples from dipterous adults associated with elephant and cattle dung in the Republic of South Africa. Sixty species representing four families (Hybotidae, Sepsidae, Sphaeroceridae, Muscidae) have been collected. The species composition of the fly assemblages collected on elephant versus cattle dung overlap considerably. Thus it seems safe to presume that a large proportion of the dipteran guild inhabiting elephant dung can shift to cow pats or vice versa, at least as far as the most speciose group (Sphaeroceridae) is concerned. On the contrary, some dung flies appear to be more exclusively associated with elephants. Further taxonomic investigations and more extended ecological studies are needed to understand the conservational issues potentially arising at the local extinction and local re-introduction of elephants. With one table. Keywords - Ecology, elephant dung, cattle dung, Diptera identifications, South Africa. INTRODUCTION Large-bodied animal species, like mammals, tend to attract several small-bodied species living in closer or looser associations with them as parasites, mutualists, commensals or even as coprophages. Thus the potential extinction of a single large-bodied mammal might induce a series of co- extinction events (STORK & LYAL 1993). Parasites are often more host-specific