Dichotomius (Dichotomius) quadrilobatus new species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Dichotomiini), from western Amazonia (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) is described and its putative systematic position within the Dichotomius boreus species group is discussed. An updated identification key to the species of the Dichotomius boreus species group is provided. Additionally, Dichotomius (Selenocopris) fortepunctatus Luederwaldt, 1923 is recorded for the first time in Colombia.
We present a review of Scatimus Erichson (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Ateuchini: Scatimina) in Colombia, with the description of S. strenua new species from the Central Andes (Antioquia Department). Records of S. strandi Balthasar from southwestern Colombia (Caquetá and Nariño Departments) are validated. The distributions of S. ovatus Harold from the Magdalena, Chocó-Darién, and Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta provinces and S. fernandezi Martínez in the eastern foothills of the Eastern Cordillera (Orinoco-Amazon) are confirmed. New departmental records and distribution maps for Colombia are presented; an updated key for the taxonomic identification of Scatimus is included. With a total of four species, Colombia has the second highest Scatimus species richness of any country.
Ecological communities of tropical regions respond to habitat configuration, being negatively affected by anthropogenic habitats. In the tropics, mountainous highland landscapes sustain ecological communities with contrasting responses to habitat transformation. This study assessed the effect of different habitats under different disturbance regimes on the dung beetle assemblage that inhabits a mountainous Andean landscape in Colombia. The habitat types surveyed were oak forest cores (low intervention), forest edges (medium intervention), and pastures (high intervention). A total of 3,810 dung beetles from ten species were collected. Dung beetle diversity was affected by habitat type, and forest cores and forest edges had higher diversity than pastures. Besides, each habitat type was characterized by a distinct dung beetle assemblage, with pastures showing the highest heterogeneity in the dung beetle assemblage. In conclusion, our study suggests that the dung beetles of a portion of Colombian Andean landscapes are sensitive to shifts of habitat quality. The higher dung beetle diversity in forested habitats indicates that pastures comprise limiting environments for their assemblages at this Andean region.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.