Is the type of soil an important factor determining the local abundance of carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae)?

Pavel Jakubec,Jan Růžička

doi:10.14411/eje.2015.071

Abstract

Carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) provide a valuable ecosystem service by promoting nutrient cycling and controlling pests like noxious flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae). Our main goal was to examine the relationship between the occur - rence of carrion beetles and soil type. We used pitfall traps to collect 43,856 specimens of 15 species of carrion beetles in the Czech Republic during 2009. We found that the abundance of seven of the carrion beetles - Nicrophorus antennatus (Reitter), N. germanicus (Linnaeus), N. humator (Gleditsch), N. interruptus (Stephens), N. sepultor (Charpentier), Silpha obscura obscura (Herbst) and T. sinuatus (Fabricius) - was significantly higher either in areas with chernozem or fluvisol soils. These findings support our hypothesis that soil type could be an important factor determining the occurrence of necrophagous European carrion beetles. Our findings could be helpful when selecting important nature conservation sites (particularly inasmuch as N. antennatus, N. germanicus and N. sepultor are listed as endangered species on the Czech Red List of Invertebrates) as in this respect localities where there are chernozem soils are potentially valuable.

Highlights

The majority of carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) are obligate carrion feeders. They are frequently associated with the corpses of vertebrates and provide a wide range of ecosystem services, such as promoting nutrient recycling and removing potential breeding sites of noxious flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae), by effectively removing the corpses or eating fly larvae (Nicrophorinae and some Silphinae) (Anderson & Peck, 1985; Sikes, 2008; Goff, 2009)
We selected an equivalent number of locations on chernozem (33) and fluvisol (33) soils, which were clustered in three regions
The most frequent species was T. sinuatus, whose dominance was overshadowed by N. vespillo and T. rugosus, but only in autumn

Summary

Introduction

The majority of carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) are obligate carrion feeders They are frequently associated with the corpses of vertebrates and provide a wide range of ecosystem services, such as promoting nutrient recycling and removing potential breeding sites of noxious flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae), by effectively removing the corpses (burying beetles – Nicrophorinae) or eating fly larvae (Nicrophorinae and some Silphinae) (Anderson & Peck, 1985; Sikes, 2008; Goff, 2009). Despite their relatively low global species diversity (186 species), they occur widely throughout the Holarctic region (Sikes, 2008; Grebennikov & Newton, 2012). This niche differentiation could be due to interspecific competition (Anderson, 1982a; Bishop et al, 2002)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion