Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-17T15:53:45.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Habitat and dung preferences of scarab beetles of the subfamily Scarabaeinae: a case study in a tropical monsoon forest in Sri Lanka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2016

Dishane K. Hewavithana ,
Mayuri R. Wijesinghe ,
Chandima D. Dangalle  and
H. A. S. Gayan Dharmarathne
Dishane K. Hewavithana
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Colombo, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka
Mayuri R. Wijesinghe*
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Colombo, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka
Chandima D. Dangalle
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Colombo, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka
H. A. S. Gayan Dharmarathne
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Colombo, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

We studied the food and habitat preferences of beetles of the subfamily Scarabaeinae in a protected tropical monsoon forest, the Wasgomuwa National Park in Sri Lanka. While gaining an insight into the capacity of different resources to support dung beetles, we tested the hypothesis that, in a landscape with a mosaic of habitat types and a diversity of large mammals, specialization facilitates coexistence of the scarabs. Pitfall traps were laid in five distinct habitat types (forest, riverine, sandy banks, scrub and grassland), and baited with five dung types (leopard, cervid, elephant, bear and buffalo). Four hundred and fifty seven beetles of 22 species in seven genera were recorded. Significant differences were seen in the species richness and abundance of dung beetles between different habitats and dung types, indicating habitat and food preferences. The highest richness of scarabs was in the riverine habitat and in leopard dung. Niche breath values of the individual species indicated differences in the degrees of specialization, while niche overlap values indicated a greater sharing of dung beetle species between similar habitats and dung types than between dissimilar ones. These findings provide evidence that selectivity of habitat, and dung, may be important in promoting coexistence among the scarabs in a tropical environment.

Keywords

dung beetleshabitat specializationniche breadthniche overlapscarabstropical monsoon forest
Type
Research Paper
Information
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 97 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © icipe 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al-Houty, W. and Al-Musalam, F. (1996) Dung consumption of Scarabaeus cristatus from Kuwait. Zoology in the Middle East 12, 71–74. doi:10.1080/09397140.1996.10637691.Google Scholar
Al-Houty, W. and Al-Musalam, F. (1997) Dung preference of the dung beetle Scarabaeus cristatus Fab (Coleoptera-Scarabaeidae) from Kuwait. Journal of Arid Environments 35, 511–516.Google Scholar
Arrow, G. J. (1931) The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Col. Lamell. III, (Coprinae). Taylor and Francis, London, 428 pp.Google Scholar
Beaune, D., Bollache, L., Bretagnolle, F. and Fruth, B. (2012) Dung beetles are critical in preventing post-dispersal seed removal by rodents in Congo rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 28, 507–510. doi:10.1017/S0266467412000466.Google Scholar
Bogoni, J. A. and Hernández, M. I. M. (2014) Attractiveness of native mammal's feces of different trophic guilds to dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae). Journal of Insect Science 14, 299. doi: 10.1093/jisesa/ieu161.Google Scholar
Cambefort, Y. (1991) Biogeography and evolution, pp. 51–68. In Dung Beetle Ecology (edited by Hanski, I. and Cambefort, Y.). Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Colwell, R. K. and Futuyma, D. J. (1971) On the measurement of niche breadth and overlap. Ecology 52, 567–576.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, A. J. (2000) Does reduced-impact logging help preserve bio-diversity in tropical rainforests? A case study from Borneo using dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) as indicators. Environmental Entomology 29, 467–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, A. J. and Sutton, S. L. (1997) A dung beetle that feeds on fig: Implications for the measurement of species rarity. Journal of Tropical Ecology 13, 759–766.Google Scholar
Davis, A. L. (1989) Nesting of Afrotropical Oniticellus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) and its evolutionary trend from soil to dung. Ecological Entomology 14, 11–21.Google Scholar
Department of Wildlife Conservation (2008) Biodiversity baseline survey: Wasgomuwa national park. Department of Wildlife Conservation, Colombo, Sri Lanka. 60 pp.Google Scholar
Duraes, R., Martins, W. P. and Vaz-De-Mello, F. Z. (2005) Dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) assemblages across a natural forest-cerrado ecotone in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Neotropical Entomology 34, 721–731.Google Scholar
Finn, J. A. and Giller, P. S. (2002) Experimental investigations of colonization by north temperate dung beetles of different types of domestic herbivore dung. Applied Soil Ecology 20, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galante, E., Mena, J. and Lumbreiras, C. (1995) Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Geotrupinae) attracted to fresh cattle dung in wooded and open pasture. Environmental Entomology 24, 1063–1068.Google Scholar
Halffter, G., Favila, M. E. and Halffter, V. (1992) A comparative study of the structure of the scarab guild in Mexican tropical rain forests and derived ecosystems. Folia Entomológica Mexicana 84, 131–156.Google Scholar
Halffter, G. and Mathews, E. G. (1966) The natural history of dung beetles of the subfamily Scarabaeinae (Coloeptera, Scarabaeidae). Folia Entomologica Mexicana 12–14, 1–312.Google Scholar
Hanski, I. (1981) Coexistence of competitors in patchy environment with and without predation. Oikos 37, 306–312.Google Scholar
Hanski, I. (1987) Nutritional ecology of insects, mites and spiders, pp. 837–884. In Nutritional Ecology of Dung and Carrion Feeding Insects (edited by Slanky, F. and Rodriguez, J. G.). Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Hanski, I. and Cambefort, Y. (Eds) (1991) Dung Beetle Ecology. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 481 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewavithana, D. K. (2013) An ecological study on dung associated beetles with special reference to true dung beetles (Family Scarabaeidae; subfamily Scarabaeinae) in the Wasgomuwa National Park, Sri Lanka. BSc Dissertation, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Howden, H. F. and Young, O. P. (1981) Panamanian Scarabaeinae: Taxonomy, Distribution, and Habits (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae). Contributions of the American Entomological Institute, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 18, 1–204.Google Scholar
Klein, B. C. (1989) Effects of forest fragmentation on dung and carrion beetle communities in central amazonia. Ecology 70, 1715–1725.Google Scholar
Kudavidanage, E. P. and Lekamge, D. (2012) A provisional checklist of dung beetles (Coleoptera; Scarabaeidae) in Sri Lanka, pp. 438–444. In The National Red List 2012 of Sri Lanka; Conservation Status of the Fauna and Flora (edited by Weerakoon, D. K. and Wijesundara, S.). Ministry of Environment, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Google Scholar
Landin, B.-O. (1961) Ecological studies on dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Opuscula Entomologica Supplementum 19, 227.Google Scholar
Larsen, T. H. and Forsyth, A. (2005) Trap spacing and transect design for dung beetle biodiversity studies. Biotropica 37, 322–325.Google Scholar
Laub, C., Youngman, R. R., Love, K. and Mize, T. (2009) Using Pitfall Traps to Monitor Insect Activity. Communications and Marketing, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia State, Petersburg. http://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/444/444-416/444-416.html.Google Scholar
Macarthur, R. and Levins, R. (1967) The limiting similarity, convergence and divergence of coexisting species. The American Naturalist 101, 377–385. doi: 10.1086/282505.Google Scholar
Manly, B. F. J., Mcdonald, L. L. and Thomas, D. L. (1993) Resource Selection by Animals: Statistical Design and Analysis for Field Studies. Chapman and Hall, London. 192 pp.Google Scholar
Martín-Piera, F. and Lobo, J. M. (1996) A comparative discussion of trophic preferences in dung beetle communities. Miscellania Zoologica 19, 13–31.Google Scholar
Medina, C. A., Escobar, S. F. and Kattan, G. H. (2002) Diversity and habitat use of dung beetles in a restored Andean landscape. Biotropica 34, 181–187.Google Scholar
Mueller, L. D. and Altenberg, L. (1985) Statistical inference on measures of niche overlap. Ecology 66, 1204–1210.Google Scholar
Noriega, J. A. (2012) Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) attracted to Lagothrix lagotricha (Humboldt) and Alouatta seniculus (Linnaeus) (Primates: Atelidae) dung in a Colombian Amazon forest. Psyche 2012, Article ID 437589, 6. doi:10.1155/2012/437589.Google Scholar
Pianka, E. R. (1973) The structure of lizard communities. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 4, 53–74.Google Scholar
Richardson, P. Q. and Richardson, R. H. (2000) Dung beetles improve the soil community (Texas/Oklahoma). Ecological Restoration 18, 116–117.Google Scholar
Ridsdill-Smith, T. J. (1986) The effect of seasonal changes in cattle dung on egg production by two species of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in south-western Australia. Bulletin of Entomological Research 76, 63–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabu, T. K., Vinod, K. V., Latha, M., Nithya, S. and Boby, J. (2011) Cloud forest dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) in the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot in southwestern India. Tropical Conservation Science 4, 12–24.Google Scholar
Santoro, D., Polidori, C., Asís, J. D. and Tormos, J. (2011) Complex interactions between components of individual prey specialization affect mechanisms of niche variation in a grasshopper-hunting wasp. Journal of Animal Ecology 80, 1123–1133.Google Scholar
Vinod, K. V. and Sabu, T. K. (2007) Species composition and community structure of dung beetles attracted to dung of gaur and elephant in the moist forests of South Western Ghats. Journal of Insect Science 7, 56. http://doi.org/10.1673/031.007.5601.Google Scholar
Wille, A., Fuentes, G., Orozco, E. and Soleis, E. (1974) Additional observations on the behaviour of a tropical forest dung beetle Megathoposoma candezei (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Revista de Biología Tropical 22, 129–133.Google Scholar
Zar, J. H. (1984) Biostatistical Analysis. Prentice Hall, New Jersey. 736 pp.Google Scholar