Doctoral student Christian Deschodt might as well change his name to Detective Dung Beetle thanks to his contribution to species finds, including a mysterious specimen and a dung beetle affectionately named Pragtig.
Hartebeesport, South Africa (15 November 2024) — Over the past two decades, field trips in search of dung beetles have taken University of Pretoria (UP) doctoral student Christian Deschodt (AKA Detective Dung Beetle) across Southern Africa.
But it was an unsuspecting well-trodden walk to fetch his kids from school just a mere 1,5km from his home near Hartbeespoort that saw him stumble upon an entirely new species.
This was just one of two new species that were recently described by Christian, who has been involved in the discovery and description of more than 50 new dung beetle species!
Simple Walk Turns to Discovery
“After a morning of research work, I like to stretch my legs by taking a walk to fetch my two children from primary school,” he says.
Of course, Detective Dung Beetle could never have known that this walk would lead him to his next discovery.
About 500 metres into the walk, he saw the tiny insect that resembled something of a chocolate chip crumb.
Less than 5mm in size amid pugnacious ants, he was curious to discover that there was no dung in sight, as would be expected when dung beetles are around.
After carefully collecting it, Christian studied the specimen under a microscope and realised that it was a female of a species he’d never seen before. Inspired by its appearance of horns, he named it Hathor after the Egyptian deity, who was often portrayed as a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns.
He believes that this particular species may live in ant nests, and may be providing a mutually beneficial service to its fellow insects.
News about the species, officially named Hathoronthophagus spinosa, was announced in Zootaxa, a scientific journal that specialises in updates about the discovery of new species.
Christian, together with his PhD supervisor, Professor Catherine Sole of UP’s Department of Zoology and Entomology, also placed the species in a new genus—Hathoronthophagus.
He hopes the find will prompt other experts working in Southern Africa to explore the relatively unknown relationship between ants and dung beetles more intensively.
Dung Beetles Are Agriculture’s Little Helpers
With around 500 species of dung beetle in South Africa and in excess of 700 across Southern Africa, the dung beetle family is diverse and curious. By far and wide, they are considered agriculture’s little helpers.
Christian’s latest paper (which also appeared in Zootaxa) described yet another new species that South Africans are likely to appreciate— Onthophagus pragtig.
It is one of 20 species that is part of a small group of dung beetles in the genus Onthophagus.
“The epithet ‘pragtig’ is Afrikaans for ‘splendid’,” Detective Dung Beetle explains. “It links this species with some other very closely related species within the same group, namely Onthophagus splendidus and Onthophagus splendidoides. All of them seem to prefer sandy soils.”
Examples of Onthophagus pragtig have been collected in Limpopo and the Northern Cape, and were described from specimens that are part of collections held at UP and the Ditsong Museum of Natural History in Pretoria.
The first known specimens of Onthophagus pragtig were collected by Professor Clarke Scholtz—Christian’s mentor who, before his retirement, was associated with UP’s Department of Zoology and Entomology for many years.
Meanwhile, in other discovery news, a new frog species has been discovered, and it’s extra special to South Africa as the first endemic frog to the Cederberg!
by 