Abstract
The diversity of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) is affected by urbanization, habitat fragmentation and disappearance of native mammals, which result in changes in the quality and availability of food, and resources for nesting. We evaluated the diversity, distribution of species in different trophic guilds and foraging strategies, and temporal variation in abundance of dung beetles in an urban fragment of Cerrado in a Federal District of Brazil. This study was conducted at the Experimental Station of Biology (EEB) of the University of Brasilia (UnB), Federal District, Brazil. Fortnightly, between October 2012 and September 2013, Scarabaeinae were collected using baited (human faeces, pig meat, or banana) and unbaited pitfall traps. Aspects of the dung beetle assemblage were evaluated, including species richness and abundance, feeding habits and foraging strategies. A total of 614 individuals were collected, which included eight species belonging to seven genera and four tribes. Dichotomius carbonarius (Mannerheim, 1829), a generalist species, dominated the assemblage, indicating that it is adapted to living in fragmented and urbanized areas. As regards feeding habits, Eurysternus caribaeus (Jablonsky & Herbst, 1789) was considered to be strictly coprophagous, Coprophanaeus cyanescens (d'Olsoufieff, 1924) copronecrophagous and D. carbonarius a generalist. Most species were classified as paracoprids, which accounted for 75% of the species collected. Regarding the attractiveness of the bait, the highest numbers of individuals and species were recorded in pitfall traps baited with human faeces. A high abundance of Scarabaeinae was recorded in the first half of the rainy season (October-December) with 98.2% of the individuals collected in this period. The urban area studied harboured a low number of species with high abundance of a few species.
Highlights
Habitat fragmentation results in a discontinuity in the spatial distribution of resources, which affects occupation, reproduction and survival of species (Franklin et al, 2002)
The most abundant species were Dichotomius carbonarius (Mannerheim, 1829), Eurysternus caribaeus (Jablonsky & Herbst, 1789) and Eutrichillum hirsutum (Boucomont, 1928), which together accounted for 86.6% of the total number of individuals caught (Table 1)
The Indicator Value (IndVal) analysis revealed that three species are significantly associated with one or more types of bait
Summary
Habitat fragmentation results in a discontinuity in the spatial distribution of resources, which affects occupation, reproduction and survival of species (Franklin et al, 2002). Cerrado has been intensively used by humans because of its geographical position and characteristics, which are favourable for agriculture and raising livestock (Cunha et al, 2008). Another important aspect is that the global human population is growing and becoming increasingly urban. Urban expansion suppresses native vegetation and is a major threat to biodiversity (Groffman et al, 2017) and one of the main factors causing the extinction of species (Macdonald et al, 2008). The main effect of urbanization in reducing insects biodiversity is due to habitat loss, air pollution and artificial light (Muller, 1972)
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