The effect of scarab beetle activity on the breeding of coprophilic insects in cattle dung was investigated in a pasture in central Queensland. On seven occasions, natural dung pats were covered with one of two types of wire mesh cages: fine mesh was used to exclude scarabs, and coarse mesh protected an equal number of other pats from trampling by cattle. Pats under the coarse mesh were colonized by the usual range of dung arthropod fauna including scarabs. Populations of scarabs and other dung arthropods also were sampled on each occasion using pitfall traps baited with cattle dung. Fewer adult predaceous insects were collected from pats beneath the coarse mesh. These pats also yielded fewer Diptera, hymenopterous parasitoids, and coprophagous Coleoptera than the pats beneath the fine mesh.