Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T22:49:44.815Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Patterns of morphology in carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) along a Neotropical altitudinal gradient

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2014

Sarah A. Maveety*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC27109, USA
Robert A. Browne
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC27109, USA
*
Get access

Abstract

In the present study, body length and dispersal ability were examined in carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) sampled in the Peruvian Andes along two altitudinal gradients: old-growth forest and anthropogenically disturbed region. Dispersal ability was estimated by the flight-wing condition (i.e. macropterous or brachypterous) and the cuticular length of the flight muscle (medial length of the metasternum). The relationship between body length and altitude for combined gradients varied by tribe; all possible relationships were found: positive; negative; no relationship. At the family level, a negative relationship between altitude and insect body length was found; this was predicted because of a decrease in the diversity of resources, habitat area and primary productivity, and the increase in the unfavourable environment observed at high altitudes. Flight muscle length was also highly variable among tribes; however, for combined gradients, a negative correlation with altitude was found at the family level. Some tribes were either completely macropterous or brachypterous, but at the family level, the percentage of brachyptery increased with altitude. We suggest two hypotheses that may explain the increased incidence of flightlessness observed with increasing altitude: constraints of energy use and reduced need for dispersal potential. At the family level, carabid beetles tended to have a greater body length and decreased brachyptery in disturbed regions compared with old-growth forests. Increased dispersal ability was expected because of the need to find a suitable habitat in disturbed areas. Observed relationships may depend upon which tribes are examined and whether the forest on an altitudinal gradient has been disturbed.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © ICIPE 2014 

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

Altshuler, D. L., Dudley, R. and McGuire, J. A. (2004) Resolution of a paradox: hummingbird flight at high elevation does not come without a cost. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101, 1773117736.Google Scholar
Andersen, J. (1988) Resource partitioning and interspecific interactions among riparian Bembidion species (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Entomologia Generalis 13, 4760.Google Scholar
Blake, S., Foster, G. N., Eyre, M. D. and Luff, M. I. (1994) Effects of habitat type and grassland management practices on the body size distribution of carabid beetles. Pedobiologia 38, 502512.Google Scholar
Brehm, G. and Fiedler, K. (2004) Bergmann's rule does not apply to geometrid moths along an elevational gradient in an Andean montane rain forest. Global Ecology and Biogeography 13, 714.Google Scholar
Brehm, G., Süssenbac, D. and Fiedler, K. (2003) Unique elevational diversity patterns of geometrid moths in an Andean montane rainforest. Ecography 26, 456466.Google Scholar
Chown, S. L. and Klok, C. J. (2003) Altitudinal body size clines: latitudinal effects associated with changing seasonality. Ecography 26, 445455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cieglar, J. C. (2000) Ground Beetles and Wrinkled Bark Beetles of South Carolina. Clemson University Press, Clemson. 149 pp.Google Scholar
Darlington, P. J. (1936) Variation and atrophy of flying wings of some carabid beetles. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 29, 136179.Google Scholar
Darlington, P. J. (1943) Carabidae of mountains and islands: data on the evolution of isolated faunas, and on atrophy of wings. Ecological Monographs 13, 3761.Google Scholar
Darlington, P. J. (1970) Carabidae on tropical islands, especially the West Indies. Biotropica 2, 715.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. R. (1859) Origin of Species. J. Murray, London. 502 pp.Google Scholar
den Boer, P. J., Van Huizen, T. H. P., den Boer-Daanje, W., Aukema, B. and den Bieman, C. F. M. (1980) Wing polymorphism and dimorphism in ground beetles as stages in an evolutionary process (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Entomologia Generalis 6, 107134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denno, R. F., Roderick, G. K., Olmstead, K. L. and Döbel, H. G. (1991) Density-related migration in planthoppers (Homoptera: Delphacidae): the role of habitat persistence. The American Naturalist 138, 15131541.Google Scholar
Dillon, M. E., Frazier, M. R. and Dudley, R. (2006) Into thin air: physiology and evolution of alpine insects. Integrative Computational Biology 46, 4961.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erwin, T. L. (1979) Thoughts on the evolutionary history of ground beetles: hypotheses generated from comparative faunal analysis of lowland forest sites in temperate and tropical regions, pp. 539592. In Carabid Beetles: Their Evolution, Natural History, and Classification (edited by Erwin, T. L., Ball, G. E., Whitehead, D. R. and Halpern, A. L.). Dr. W. Junk, The Hague.Google Scholar
Erwin, T. L. (1985) The taxon pulse: a general pattern of lineage radiation and extinction among carabid beetles, pp. 437472. In Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Zoogeography of Beetles and Ants (edited by Ball, G. E.). Dr. W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Erwin, T. L. (1991) Natural history of the carabid beetles at the BIOLAT Rio Manu Biological Station, Pakitza, Perú. Revista Peruana de Entomologia 33, 185.Google Scholar
Erwin, T. L. (1996) Biodiversity at its utmost: tropical forest beetles, pp. 27–40. In Biodiversity II: Understanding and Protecting Our Biological Resources. Joseph Henry Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Erwin, T. L. and Kavanaugh, D. H. (1981) Systematics and zoogeography of Bembidion Latreille: I. The carlhi and erasum groups of western North America (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Bembidiini). Entomologica Scandinavica Supplement 15, 3372.Google Scholar
Erwin, T. L., Kavanaugh, D. H. and Moore, W. (2003) Key to tribes and genera of Costa Rican Carabidae. Prepared for National Biodiversity Institute (INBio), San José, Costa Rica. 26 pp. Google Scholar
Forsythe, T. G. (1987) The relationship between body form and habit in some Carabidae (Coleoptera). Journal of Zoology 211, 643666.Google Scholar
Guevara, J. and Avilés, L. (2013) Community-wide body size differences between nocturnal and diurnal insects. Ecology 94, 537543.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, D. and Menéndez, R. (1997) Patterns in the distribution, abundance and body size of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Caraboidea) in relation to dispersal ability. Journal of Biogeography 24, 903914.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, P. M. (1979) Wing-folding mechanisms in beetles with special reference to investigations of adephagan phylogeny (Coleoptera), pp. 539592. In Carabid Beetles: Their Evolution, Natural History, and Classification (edited by Erwin, T. L., Ball, G. E. and Whitehead, D. R.). Dr. W. Junk, The Hague.Google Scholar
Harrison, J. F. and Roberts, S. P. (2000) Flight respiration and energetics. Annual Review of Physiology 62, 179205.Google Scholar
Harrison, R. G. (1980) Dispersal polymorphisms in insects. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11, 95118.Google Scholar
Hawkins, B. A. and DeVries, P. J. (1996) Altitudinal gradients in the body sizes of Costa Rican butterflies. Acta Oecologica 17, 185194.Google Scholar
Herzog, S. K., Hamel-Leigue, A. C., Larsen, T. H., Mann, D. J., Soria-Auza, R. W., Gill, B. D., Edmonds, W. D. and Spector, S. (2013) Elevational distribution and conservation biogeography of Phanaeine dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) in Bolivia. PLOS ONE 8, e64963.Google Scholar
Hodkinson, I. D. (2005) Terrestrial insects along elevation gradients: species and community responses to altitude. Biological Reviews 80, 489513.Google Scholar
Ikeda, H., Nishikawa, M. and Sota, T. (2012) Loss of flight promotes beetle diversification. Nature Communications 3, 648.Google Scholar
Janzen, D. H., Ataroff, M., Fariñas, M., Reyes, S., Rinco, N., Soler, A., Soriano, P. and Vera, M. (1976) Changes in the arthropod community along an elevational transect in the Venezuelan Andes. Biotropica 8, 193203.Google Scholar
Kavanaugh, D. H. (1985) On wing atrophy in carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), with special reference to Nearctic Nebria, pp. 437472. In Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Zoogeography of Beetles and Ants (edited by Ball, G. E.). Dr. W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Kubota, U., Loyola, R. D., Almeida, A. M., Carvalho, D. A. and Lewinsohn, T. M. (2007) Body size and host range co-determine the altitudinal distribution of Neotropical tephritid flies. Global Ecology and Biogeography 16, 632639.Google Scholar
Lövei, G. L. and Sunderland, D. K. (1996) Ecology and behavior of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Annual Review of Entomology 41, 231256.Google Scholar
Mani, M. S. (1968) Ecology and Biogeography of High Altitude Insects. Dr. W. Junk Publishers, The Hague. 527 pp.Google Scholar
Maveety, S. A., Browne, R. A. and Erwin, T. L. (2011) Carabidae diversity along an altitudinal gradient in a Peruvian cloud forest (Coleoptera). Zookeys 147, 651666.Google Scholar
Maveety, S. A., Browne, R. A. and Erwin, T. L. (2013) Carabid beetle diversity related to altitude and seasonality in the Peruvian Andes. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 48, 165174.Google Scholar
McCoy, E. D. (1990) The distribution of insects along elevational gradients. Oikos 58, 313322.Google Scholar
Moran, M. D. (2003) Arguments for rejecting the sequential Bonferroni in ecological studies. Oikos 100, 403405.Google Scholar
Moret, P. (2005) Los Coleópteros Carabidae del Páramo en los Andes del Ecuador: Sistemática, Ecología y Biogeografía . Museo de Zoología, Centro de Biodiversidad y Ambiente, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito. 306 pp. Google Scholar
Moret, P. (2009) Altitudinal distribution, diversity and endemicity of Carabidae (Coleoptera) in the páramos of Ecuadorian Andes. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 45, 500510.Google Scholar
Mousseau, T. A. (1997) Ectotherms follow the converse to Bergmann's rule. Evolution 51, 630632.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Niemelä, J. and Spence, J. (1991) Distribution and abundance of an exotic ground-beetle (Carabidae): a test of community impact. Oikos 62, 351359.Google Scholar
Niemelä, J., Kotze, J., Ashworth, A., Brandmayr, P., Desender, K., New, T., Penev, L., Samways, M. and Spence, J. (2000) The search for common anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity: a global network. Journal of Insect Conservation 4, 39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noonan, G. R. (1985) The influences of dispersal, vicariance, and refugia on patterns of biogeographical distributions of the beetle family Carabidae, pp. 322349. In Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Zoogeography of Beetles and Ants (edited by Ball, G. E.). Dr. W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Oliver, I. and Beattie, A. J. (1996) Invertebrate morphospecies as surrogates for species: a case study. Conservation Biology 10, 99109.Google Scholar
Rainio, J. and Niemelä, J. (2003) Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) as bioindicators. Biodiversity and Conservation 12, 487506.Google Scholar
Rapp, J. M. and Silman, M. R. (2012) Diurnal, seasonal, and altitudinal trends in microclimate across a tropical montane cloud forest. Climate Research 55, 1732.Google Scholar
Reichardt, H. (1977) A synopsis of the genera of Neotropical Carabidae (Insecta: Coleoptera). Quaestiones Entomologicae 13, 346493.Google Scholar
Ribera, I., Dolédec, S., Downie, I. S. and Foster, G. N. (2001) Effect of land disturbance and stress on species traits of ground beetle assemblages. Ecology 82, 11121129.Google Scholar
Roff, D. A. (1990) The evolution of flightlessness in insects. Ecological Monographs 60, 389421.Google Scholar
Šerić Jelaska, L. and Durbešić, P. (2009) Comparison of the body size and wing form of carabid species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) between isolated and continuous forest habitats. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 45, 327338.Google Scholar
Shahabuddin, S., Hidayat, P., Manuwoto, S., Noerdjito, W. A., Tscharntke, T. and Schulze, C. H. (2010) Diversity and body size of dung beetles attracted to different dung types along a tropical land-use gradient in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Journal of Tropical Ecology 26, 5365.Google Scholar
Shelomi, M. (2012) Where are we now? Bergmann's rule sensu lato in insects. American Naturalist 180, 511519.Google Scholar
Smith, R. J., Hines, A., Richmond, S., Merrick, M., Drew, A. and Fargo, R. (2000) Altitudinal variation in body size and population density of Nicrophorus investigator (Coleoptera: Silphidae). Environmental Entomology 29, 290298.Google Scholar
Sokal, R. R. and Rohlf, F. J. (1995) Biometry, 3rd edn. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Sømme, L., Davidson, R. L. and Onore, G. (1996) Adaptations of insects at high altitudes of Chimborazo, Ecuador. European Journal of Entomology 93, 313318.Google Scholar
Terborgh, J. (1977) Bird species diversity on an Andean elevational gradient. Ecology 58, 10071019.Google Scholar
Thiele, H. U. (1977) Carabid Beetles in their Environments: A Study on Habitat Selection by Adaptations in Physiology and Behaviour. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. 369 pp.Google Scholar
Tsuchiya, Y., Takami, Y., Okuzaki, Y. and Sota, T. (2012) Genetic differences and phenotypic plasticity in body size between high- and low-altitude populations of the ground beetle Carabus tosanus . Journal of Evolutionary Biology 25, 18351842.Google Scholar
Wagner, D. L. and Liebherr, J. K. (1992) Flightlessness in insects. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 7, 216220.Google Scholar
Williams, J. W., Jackson, S. T. and Kutzbach, J. E. (2007) Projected distributions of novel and disappearing climates by 2100 AD. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 57385742.Google Scholar
Young, K. and León, B. (1999) Peru's Humid Eastern Montane Forests. Center for Research on the Cultural and Biological Diversity of Andean Rainforests (DIVA), Copenhagen. 306 pp.Google Scholar
Zera, A. J. and Denno, R. F. (1997) Physiology and ecology of dispersal polymorphism in insects. Annual Review of Entomology 42, 207230.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Maveety and Browne supplementary table

Supplementary table

Download Maveety and Browne supplementary table(PDF)
PDF 181.2 KB