Data from: Who prefers the dark? Daily activity of dung beetles from an Amazonian region

Temporal niche partitioning is an important mechanism for minimizing
interspecific competition and promoting species coexistence in complex
ecosystems. This allows sympatric competing species to exploit resources
at different times of the day, minimizing direct competition, and provides
insights into the evolutionary processes of circadian distribution of
communities, resource availability, and intra- and interspecific
competitive pressure. In this study, we examined how diel activity
patterns (nocturnal and diurnal periods) of dung beetle assemblages
(species richness, abundance, and assemblage structure) within a conserved
region of Amazonian forest. To achieve this, we sampled dung beetles using
pitfall traps baited with human feces during the day and night in a
conserved Amazonian forest. Overall, we sampled a total of 430 individuals
and 32 species. While dung beetle species richness and abundance did not
differ significantly between day and night, a pronounced shift in species
composition between dial activity patterns was observed, indicating clear
temporal segregation of dung beetle species. Five species were classified
as diurnal, four species were considered nocturnal, and one species was an
activity period generalist. Our findings highlight the importance of
temporal dynamics as drivers of dung beetle species distributions in
tropical forests, directly influencing resource partitioning and promoting
behavioral adaptations that facilitate species coexistence in the Amazon
rainforest.