Exploitation of Flagship Species of Scarabaeid Beetles with Application of Analyzed Results on Cultural Entomology

Abstract

For successful conservation of diverse insects, it is important to study the current attitude and interest of the general public toward diverse insects from the aspect of cultural entomology. The popularity of different scarabaeid species in Japanese society was therefore investigated. Popularity was assessed by the Google search volume for scarabaeid species names in katakana script, using the Keyword Tool of Google AdWords. As a whole, a relatively small number of scarabaeid species was represented by an extraordinarily high search volume, while an abundance of other species was represented by a low search volume, indicating the biased attention of Japanese to only a small number of scarabeid species. It appears that most of the popular scarabaeids have characteristics of (1) apparent morphological and ecological traits, (2) association with human survival, (3) occurrence of the species around human habitation, and/or (4) their widespread distribution in Japan. In particular, the search volume for <i>Kabuto-mushi</i> <i>Trypoxylus </i><i>dichotomus</i>, a species with a distinctive horn and large body and occur in traditional rural landscapes in a wide range of Japan, was extraordinarily high relative to other species examined. This demonstrates, as also shown in earlier publications, that these beetles strongly fascinate the Japanese general public. Such a distinct preference for Japanese rhinoceros beetles suggests their high potential as a flagship species, which by definition are charismatic species and can become symbols and leading elements in any conservation campaign.