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The data we present are part of the project DUNGPOOL, which aims to evaluate the effects of the species pool, community assembly processes and increasing temperatures on the local diversity and ecosystem functions performed by dung beetles in island and mainland cattle-grazed pasturelands. By combining replicated field experiments on the Iberian Peninsula with parallel work on three mid-Atlantic islands (Pico, Faial and Terceira, Azores), the project exploits the natural contrast between a species-rich mainland pool and the species-poor, largely exotic island pools, to test explicit biodiversity–ecosystem-function (BEF) hypotheses across spatial scales. From June to July 2024, dung beetles were sampled in 84 locations of the three islands of the Azores Archipelago (Portugal), using 306 pitfall traps baited with fresh cow dung. A total of 1,141 dung beetle individuals were recorded across these islands: 18 individuals in Pico Island, 480 individuals in Faial Island and 643 individuals in Terceira Island. These individuals were distributed amongst four species from the family Scarabaeidae (Insecta, Coleoptera): Calamosternus granarius (Linnaeus, 1767), Labarrus lividus (Olivier, 1789), Onthophagus taurus (Schreber, 1759) and Onthophagus medius (Kugelann, 1792). The species O. medius is a new record for this Archipelago and we propose that previous historical records of Onthophagus vacca (Linnaeus, 1767) should now be considered a regional synonym of Onthophagus medius .

The exoskeleton of an insect could be an important factor in the success of its evolutionary process. This reaches its maximum expression in beetles, which constitute the most diversified animal taxon. The involvement in the management of environmental radiation could be one of the most important functions of the exoskeleton due to the passive contributions to the thermoregulation of body temperature. We study whether the elytra of two sympatric and closely related beetle species respond differentially to the radiation of distinct wavelengths in agreement with their ecological preferences. (Herbst) and (Kugelaan) occupy different habitats and environmental conditions (shaded vs. unshaded from solar radiation). The potential adaptive variations to thermoregulation under these different ecological conditions were studied using the responses of their exoskeletons to radiation of different wavelengths (ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared). For these two species, the amounts of the three wavelengths that were reflected, transmitted or absorbed by the exoskeleton were measured using of a spectrophotometer. In addition, the darkness and thickness of the elytra were examined to determine whether these two features influence the management of radiation by the exoskeleton. Both species differ in the management of visible and near-infrared radiation. In agreement with habitat preferences, the species inhabiting shaded conditions would allow infrared and visible radiation to penetrate the elytra more easily to heat internal body parts, while the elytra of the heliophilous species would have increased absorbance of these same types of radiation. An increase in body size (and therefore in elytron thickness) and the quantity of dark spots may serve as barriers against exogenous heat gain. However, the maintenance of between-species differences independent of the effects of these two morphological features led us to suspect that an unconsidered elytron characteristic may also be affecting these differences. The results of the involvement of the exoskeleton thickness and spots in the thermoregulation of insects opens new research lines to obtain a better understanding of the function of the exoskeleton as a passive thermoregulation mechanism in Coleoptera.