I observed only an Oryctes (the insects of
this genus in Europe generally feed on decayed vegetable matter)
and two species of Phanaeus, common in such situations. On the
opposite side of the Cordillera in Chiloe another species of
Phanaeus is exceedingly abundant, and it buries the dung of the
cattle in large earthen balls beneath the ground. There is reason
to believe that the genus Phanaeus, before the introduction of
cattle, acted as scavengers to man. In Europe beetles which find
support in the matter which has already contributed towards the
life of other and larger animals, are so numerous that there must
be considerably more than one hundred different species.
Considering this, and observing what a quantity of food of this
kind is lost on the plains of La Plata, I imagined I saw an
instance where man had disturbed that chain by which so many
animals are linked together in their native country. In Van
Diemen's Land, however, I found four species of Onthophagus, two of
Aphodius, and one of a third genus, very abundant under the dung of
cows; yet these latter animals had been then introduced only
thirty-three years. Previous to that time the kangaroo and some
other small animals were the only quadrupeds; and their dung is of
a very different quality from that of their successors introduced
by man.
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