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Tabuleiros Costeiros Corresponding author: Dr. Adenir Vieira Teodoro Embrapa Coastal Tablelands Av. Beira-Mar 3250, Jardins Tel. +55 21 79 4009 1300 Fax +55 21 79 4009 1369 Emails: [email protected] [email protected] Dear Editor of Entomotropica We are submitting a manuscript by Michela Costa Batista, Gislane da Silva Lopes, Luíz Júnior Pereira Marques and Adenir Vieira Teodoro entitled The dung beetle community (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is differently affected by land use and seasonality in northeastern Brazil. This manuscript is being submitted for possible publication in Entomotropica and is not considered elsewhere. We assessed the influence of 5 land use types and seasonality on patterns of richness and abundance of dung beetles in São Luís, Maranhão state, Brazil. We found that seasonality strongly influenced the dung beetle community with a higher number of species and individuals being collected during the rainy season. Also, species richness was influenced by land use only in the rainy period, with eucalyptus harboring the lowest number of species. Moreover, land use affected the abundance of dung beetles, with a higher number of individuals found in young fallow and cassava. We show that seasonality and land use should be taken into consideration in bioindication studies using dung beetles since species richness and abundance vary widely depending on the period of the year and on the habitat. Additionally, except for eucalyptus, all land uses supported high dung beetle diversity during the rainy season highlighting the importance of agricultural and near-natural habitats spread over the landscape in biodiversity conservation. Therefore, we believe that our manuscript will be of general interest for the readership of Entomotropica. Thank you very much for your consideration of our manuscript. Yours sincerely, Adenir V. Teodoro Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento Av. Beira Mar, 3250 49025-040 Aracaju SE Telefone (79) 4009 1300 Fax (79) 4009 1369 www.cpatc.embrapa.br