Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:40:05.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Structure of local communities of endemic dung beetles in Madagascar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2010

Heidi Viljanen ,
Helena Wirta ,
Olivier Montreuil ,
Pierre Rahagalala ,
Steig Johnson  and
Ilkka Hanski
Heidi Viljanen*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, PO Box 65, Viikinkaari 1, FI–00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Helena Wirta
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, PO Box 65, Viikinkaari 1, FI–00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Olivier Montreuil
Affiliation:
Entomologie, Département Systématique et Évolution, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, 45 rue Buffon, F–75005 Paris, France
Pierre Rahagalala
Affiliation:
Département d'Entomologie, Faculté des Sciences, B.P. 906, Université d'Antananarivo, Madagascar
Steig Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr NW, Calgary AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Ilkka Hanski
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, PO Box 65, Viikinkaari 1, FI–00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
*
1Corresponding author: Heidi Viljanen. Email: heidi.viljanen@helsinki.fi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The wet tropical forests in Madagascar have endemic dung beetles that have radiated for tens of millions of years using a limited range of resources produced by the species-poor mammalian fauna. Beetles were trapped in two wet-forest localities over 4 years (6407 trap nights, 18,869 individuals). More limited data for six other local communities were used to check the generality of the results. Local communities are relatively species poor (around 30 species) in comparison with wet-forest-inhabiting dung beetle communities elsewhere in the tropics (typically 50 or more species). The species belong to only two tribes, Canthonini and Helictopleurina (Oniticellini), which have evolved, exceptionally for dung beetle tribes, completely nocturnal versus diurnal diel activities, respectively. Patterns in the elevational occurrence, body size and resource use suggest that interspecific competition restricts the numbers of locally coexisting species exploiting the limited range of resources that are available. On the other hand, regional turnover in the species composition is exceptionally high due to a large number of species with small geographical ranges, yielding a very large total fauna of dung beetles in Madagascar (>250 species). Apart from exceptionally low local (alpha) diversity and high beta diversity, the Malagasy dung beetle communities are ecologically distinctive from comparable communities in other tropical regions in having high numerical dominance of the most abundant species, small average body size and low degree of resource specialization.

Keywords

beta diversitycommunity structureelevational occurrenceniche partitioningresource competitionspecies richness
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 26 , Issue 5 , September 2010 , pp. 481 - 496
Creative Commons
This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010 This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.

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

LITERATURE CITED

ANDRESEN, E. 2002. Dung beetles in a Central Amazonian rainforest and their ecological role as secondary seed dispersers. Ecological Entomology 27:257–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BARBERO, E., PALESTRINI, C. & ROLANDO, A. 1999. Dung beetle conservation: effect of habitat and resource selection (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea). Journal of Insect Conservation 3:75–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BURNEY, D. A., PIGOTT BURNEY, L., GODFREY, L. R., JUNGERS, W. L., GOODMAN, S. M., WRIGHT, H. T. & JULL, A. J. T. 2004. A chronology for late prehistoric Madagascar. Journal of Human Evolution 47:25–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
CAMBEFORT, Y. & WALTER, P. 1991. Dung beetles in tropical forest in Africa. Pp. 198–210 in Hanski, I. & Cambefort, Y. (ed.). Dung beetle ecology. Princeton University Press, Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CORNELL, H. V. 1999. Unsaturation and regional influences on species richness in ecological communties: a review of the evidence. Ecoscience 6:303–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DAVIS, A. J. 2000. Species richness of dung–feeding beetles (Coleoptera: Aphodiidae, Scarabaeidae, Hybosoridae) in tropical rainforest at Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia. Coleopterists’ Bulletin 54:221–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DAVIS, A. L. V. & SCHOLTZ, C. H. 2001. Historical vs. ecological factors influencing global patterns of Scarabaeine dung beetle diversity. Diversity and Distributions 7:161–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DE WIT, J. M. 2003. Madagascar: heads it's a continent, tails it's an island. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 31:213–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FEER, F. & PINCEBOURDE, S. 2005. Diel flight activity and ecological segregation within an assemblage of tropical forest dung and carrion beetles. Journal of Tropical Ecology 21:21–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FINN, J. A. & GILLER, P. S. 2000. Patch size and colonisation patterns: an experimental analysis using north temperate coprophagous dung beetles. Ecography 23:315–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GILL, B. D. 1991. Dung beetles in tropical American forest. Pp. 211–229 in Hanski, I. & Cambefort, Y. (ed.). Dung beetle ecology. Princeton University Press, Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GITTINGS, T. & GILLER, P. S. 1998. Resource quality and the colonisation and succession of coprophagous dung beetles. Ecography 21:581–592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HANSKI, I. 1983. Distributional ecology and abundance of dung and carrion-feeding beetles (Scarabaeidae) in tropical rain forest in Sarawak, Borneo. Acta Zoologica Fennica 167:1–45.Google Scholar
HANSKI, I. 1989. Dung beetles. Pp. 489–511 in Lieth, H. & Werger, M. J. A. (ed.). Tropical rain forest ecosystems. Elsevier, Amsterdam.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HANSKI, I. & CAMBEFORT, Y. 1991. Dung beetle ecology. PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton. 520 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HANSKI, I. & KRIKKEN, J. 1991. Dung beetles in tropical forest in South–East Asia. Pp. 179–197 in Hanski, I. & Cambefort, Y. (ed.). Dung beetle ecology. PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HANSKI, I., KOIVULEHTO, H., CAMERON, A. & RAHAGALALA, P. 2007. Deforestation and apparent extinctions of endemic forest beetles in Madagascar. Biology Letters 3:344–347.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HANSKI, I., WIRTA, H., NYMAN, T. & RAHAGALALA, P. 2008. Resource shifts in Malagasy dung beetles: contrasting processes revealed by dissimilar spatial genetic patterns. Ecology Letters 11:1208–1215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HANSKI, I., MEYKE, E. & MIINALA, M. 2009. Deforestation and tropical insect extinctions. Biology Letters 5:653–655.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HARPER, G. J., STEININGER, M. K., TUCKER, C. J., JUHN, D. & HAWKINS, F. 2007. Fifty years of deforestation and forest fragmentation in Madagascar. Environmental Conservation 34:325–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HUGUENY, B., CORNELL, H. V. & HARRISON, S. 2007. Metacommunity models predict the local–regional species richness relationship in a natural system. Ecology 88:1696–1706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JOHNSON, S. E., IRWIN, M. T., WRIGHT, P. C., ARRIGO–NELSON, S., GRASSI, C., SAMONDS, K. E. & SMITH, T. M. 2003. Natural and anthropogenic influences on lemur population structure in southeastern Madagascar. American Journal of Physiological Anthropology 36:123.Google Scholar
LEBIS, E. 1953. Revision des Canthoninae de Madagascar. Mémoires de l'institut scientifique de Madagascar, Série E 3:107–252.Google Scholar
LUMARET, J. P., KADIRI, N. & BERTRAND, M. 1992. Changes in resources: consequences for the dynamics of dung beetle communities. Journal of Applied Ecology 29:349–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MATE, J. F. 2007. New species of Aphodius (Neoemadiellus) described from Madagascar (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Nouvelle Revue d'Entomologie (N.S.) 23:267–276.Google Scholar
MOAT, J. & SMITH, P. 2007. Atlas of the vegetation of Madagascar. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 124 pp.Google Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. 2003a. Contribution à l’étude des Canthonini malgaches: description de deux nouveaux Pseudarachnodes Lebis, 1953 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Revue française d'Entomologie (N.S.) 25;113–116.Google Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. 2003b. Contribution à l’étude des Canthonini malgaches (2e note): description de deux nouveaux Aleiantus Olsoufieff, 1947 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Revue française d'Entomologie (N.S.) 25:143–146.Google Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. 2004. Contribution à l’étude des Canthonini malgaches, 3e note: description de deux Apotolamprus Olsoufieff et mises au point taxonomiques et nomenclaturales (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Revue française d'Entomologie (N.S.) 26:67–72.Google Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. 2005a. Nouveaux Helictopleurus d'Orbigny, 1915, de Madagascar et révision du ‘groupe semivirens’ sensu Lebis, 1960 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Oniticellini). Zoosystema 27;123–135.Google Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. 2005b. Contribution à l’étude des Canthonini malgaches, 4e note: deux nouveaux Apotolamprus Olsoufieff, 1947 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Revue française d'Entomologie (N.S) 27:1–4.Google Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. 2006. Contribution à l’étude des Canthonini malgaches, 6e note: description de nouvelles espèces du genre Arachnodes Westwood, 1847, et mises au point taxonomiques et nomenclaturales (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Revue française d'Entomologie (N.S.) 28:97–110.Google Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. 2007. Nouveaux Helictopleurus d'Orbigny, 1915 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 112:79–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. 2008. Révision du genre Cambefortantus Paulian, 1986 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Zoosystema 30:641–650.Google Scholar
MONTREUIL, O. & VILJANEN, H. 2007. Contribution à l’étude des Canthonini de Madagascar, 7e note: mises au point taxonomiques et nomenclaturales dans le genre Nanos Westwood, 1847, (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Revue française d'Entomologie (N.S.) 29:1–10.Google Scholar
MORIN, P. J. 1999. Community ecology. Blackwell Science, Oxford. 424 pp.Google Scholar
NICHOLS, E., GARDNER, T. A., SPECTOR, S. & THE SCARABAEINAE RESEARCH NETWORK 2009. Co-declining mammals and dung beetles: an impending ecological cascade. Oikos 118:481–487.Google Scholar
ORSINI, L., KOIVULEHTO, H. & HANSKI, I. 2007. Molecular evolution and radiation of dung beetles in Madagascar. Cladistics 23:145–168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
PAULIAN, R. & LEBIS, E. 1960. Faune de Madagascar 11: Insectes, Coléoptères, Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeina et Onthophagini. Publications de l'Institut de reserche scientifique. Tsimbazaza, Madagascar. 130 pp.Google Scholar
RAHAGALALA, P., VILJANEN, H., HOTTOLA, J. & HANSKI, I. 2009. Assemblages of dung beetles using introduced cattle dung in Madagascar. African Entomology, in press.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 76:63–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TOKESHI, M. 1999. Species coexistence: ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Blackwell Science, Oxford. 454 pp.Google Scholar
VENCES, M., WOLLENBERG, K. C., VIEITES, D. R. & LEES, D. C. 2009. Madagascar as a model region of species diversification. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24:456–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VILJANEN, H. 2009. Life history of Nanos viettei (Paulian, 1976) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Canthonini), a representative of an endemic clade of dung beetles in Madagascar. The Coleopterists’ Bulletin 63:265–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VILJANEN, H., ESCOBAR, F. & HANSKI, I. 2010. Low local but high beta diversity of tropical forest dung beetles in Madagascar. Global Ecology and Biogeography, doi:10.111/j.1466-8238.2010.00552.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WIRTA, H. 2009 Complex phylogeographic patterns, introgression and cryptic species in a lineage of Malagasy dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 96:942–955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WIRTA, H. & MONTREUIL, O. 2008. Evolution of the Canthonini Longitarsi (Scarabaeidae) in Madagascar. Zoologica Scripta 37:651–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WIRTA, H., ORSINI, L. & HANSKI, I. 2008. An old adaptive radiation of forest dung beetles in Madagascar. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 47:1076–1089.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
YODER, A. D. & NOWAK, M. D. 2006. Has vicariance or dispersal been the predominant biogeographic force in Madagascar? Only time will tell. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 37:405–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar