Volinus sticticus (Panzer, 1798)

Often referred to in the literature by the older name Aphodius equestris (Panzer, 1798), this locally common species occurs throughout Europe and Asia Minor, except for the far north and various regions of the northern Mediterranean, to Morocco and the Canary Islands and extending east to Turkmenistan, from lowland to low mountain altitudes up to 1500m or more and through much of this continental range it is an insect of sandy soils in forested or other sheltered areas. In the UK it is a locally common and often abundant species throughout Wales and south and central England though generally absent from the West Country and rare and sporadic further north. Typically a species of shaded situations it also occurs on open dung pastures and might be found wherever suitable host material occurs. Adults are present year-round; they overwinter in the soil or among plant litter and become active in early spring when mating occurs on or near to host material. Eggs are laid directly in cattle or horse dung and larvae develop rapidly in the spring and summer. New generation adults occur in the summer and there is generally some overlap with the previous generation so that they may be present through the summer with peaks in April and May and from July until October. Adults may be collected directly from wide range of dung types in most situations; locally they are common in horse dung in Whippendel woods but in some years they are abundant in cattle dung on Croxley moor, during the spring and summer they disperse by flight and may occur at light in numbers and through the winter they occasionally appear among flood-refuse. Care should be taken when collecting as several other common dung beetles are likely to occur alongside the present species e.g. Agrilinus ater (DeGeer, 1774) or Aphodius fimetarius (Linnaeus, 1758) and some e.g. Chilothorax conspurcatus (Linnaeus, 1758), Nimbus obliteratus (Panzer, 1823) or N. contaminatus (Herbst, 1783) are superficially similar.