FAVILA CASTILLO, MARIO ENRIQUE

Dr. Mario Enrique Favila Castillo is a biologist with a Master of Science and Doctor of Science in Ecology from the National School of Biological Sciences at the National Polytechnic Institute, where he graduated with Honorable Mention in both degrees. He completed postdoctoral research at the University of Paris XIII, France, and received the National Prize from the Mexican Society of Entomology in 1993. Dr. Favila was an Honorary Researcher at the Ibero-American Biodiversity Center, University of Alicante, Spain, and is an Emeritus National Researcher in the National System of Researchers and an Emeritus Researcher at the Institute of Ecology, A.C. Dr. Favila is a founding member of the “Scarabaeinae Research Network,” funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. In recognition of his contributions to Mexican Coleopterology, the journal Dugesiana dedicated a special issue (Vol. 30(2), 2023) to him, and he was honored at the XXV Zoology Symposium in 2023. Additionally, he has chaired expert commissions for SEP-CONACYT and served on the Project Evaluation Commission for Frontier Science.
At INECOL, Dr. Favila established, with other colleagues, the institute’s first graduate program in 1994 and founded the Ecoethology Network, serving several times as its Coordinator. He served as Secretary of the Graduate Program at INECOL from April 2020 to June 2022. Over his career, he has supervised 13 undergraduate, 20 master's, and 13 doctoral theses. He has taught over 90 undergraduate and graduate courses worldwide and led numerous courses and workshops on biodiversity and species conservation across Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Cuba, and Mexico. He has also served as an examiner for graduate exams in Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Mexico, and Spain.
Dr. Favila’s research includes studying sexual selection in Scarabaeinae dung beetles, examining both precopulatory and postcopulatory competition, the role of sexual selection and chemical communication in speciation, asymmetries in intrasexual combat, production of repellents and antibiotics, biodiversity and forest conservation, and the ecological impact of dung beetles in fragmented forests. His work also extends to the phylogeography and phylogeny of Scarabaeinae species and archaeozoology. He has led 17 research projects in both basic and applied sciences.
The article “The noisome of dung beetle” was published in the Science & Technology section of the prestigious magazine “The Economist” (September 2, 2024). The article concludes: “The true value of these insects, though, goes far beyond merely increasing beef production. Dung beetles are locked in an evolutionary battle with fungi for access to their favoured food. To gain the upper hand, and keep dung fungi-free, they groom it with a mixture of their own faeces and saliva. To find out how this concoction works, Mario Favila at the Institute of Ecology in Xalapa, Mexico collected gut bacteria from three dung-beetle species and cultured these microbes in the lab. Working with a team of colleagues, he then exposed them to nine strains of pathogenic fungi that cause serious problems in agriculture. The team reports in Science of Nature that the microbes found in two of the dung-beetle species were very effective at hampering the growth of seven of the fungi. Crucially, they reveal that the microbes from the third species, Onthophagus batesi, significantly decreased the growth of every fungus used. With pathogenic fungi becoming ever more resistant to existing anti-fungal agents, dung beetles have never looked more attractive.”
Dr. Favila has published over 390 scientific articles, book chapters, technical reports, and conference proceedings, including contributions to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. His research has garnered over 7,000 citations in specialized literature.