Roller dung beetles of dung piles suggest habitats are alike, but that of guarding pitfall traps suggest habitats are different

Asha, G.; Navya, K.K.; Rajesh, T.P.; Sinu, Palatty Allesh

doi:10.1017/s0266467421000225

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Regardless of the locations, the sacred groves contain relics of evergreen forests of the size < 10 ha. While the floristic aspects of the biodiversity of the sacred groves of these States are well-known 36,37 , with our investigations, the faunistic aspects of the biodiversity of the sacred groves are just coming to the light 30,31,34,[38][39][40] . While the sacred groves of Kodagu are located on a land mosaic of human settlements, business districts, homeyards, coffee plantations, and protected forests, the sacred groves of Kasaragod and Trivandrum are located on a land matrix of human settlements, business districts, and Coconut-based orchards or homeyards.…”

Section: Sacred Grovesmentioning

confidence: 60%

Urban tropical forest islets as hotspots of ants in general and invasive ants in particular

Rajesh

Manoj

Ballullaya

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Urbanization is a crucial driver of environmental and biodiversity change. It is suggested that urbanization favours generalist and invasive species and might harm specialists of natural and semi-natural habitats. In this study, we examined how an urbanization gradient and environmental gradients in the habitat area, habitat diversity, elevation, and proportion of built-up area influenced the abundance and richness of ants within tropical forest islet habitat in south India. We used abundance (proportional trap incidence) of overall ants, native ants, invasive ants, and Anoplolepis gracilipes—a globally notorious invasive ant of possible south Asian origin—and rarefied richness as the response variables. We found that native ant abundance was greater and A. gracilipes abundance was lesser in less-urbanized landscape compared to moderately-urbanized and highly-urbanized landscape. The richness of ants and abundance of overall and invasive ants were unaffected by the urbanization. We also found that none of the measured environmental gradients but habitat diversity influenced abundance of overall ants, native ants, overall invasive ants, and richness of ants; however, A. gracilipes abundance was negatively correlated with habitat diversity. Ant species composition of less-urbanized landscape was distinct from that of higher urbanization levels. The richness and abundance of native ants and abundance of non-A. gracilipes invasive ants decreased with the abundance of A. gracilipes. Because the forest islets of all three urbanization levels supported similar richness of native ants, the urbanization seems not to have an adverse effect for the native ants of native forest islets. The increasing population of A. gracilipes in urban green islets, however, is a concern. Future studies might investigate its effect on other invertebrates of epigeal and soil strata.

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Section: Sacred Grovesmentioning

confidence: 60%

Urban tropical forest islets as hotspots of ants in general and invasive ants in particular

Rajesh

Manoj

Ballullaya

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…We used two dung piles consisting of 1000 g of cow dung each for sampling beetles from each habitat. Dung piles were laid on bare ground after clearing leaf litter, and kept undisturbed for 24 h. Although our research 46 showed that guarding pitfall traps around dung piles improve catches of roller dung beetles in protected forests, in sacred groves and home gardens they hardly collected rollers, suggesting that rollers may be less prevalent in fragments and used lands. The dung pile along with one-foot soil were retrieved and soaked in a bucket full of water and allowed the trapped beetles to float on the water.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Dung beetles prefer used land over natural greenspace in urban landscape

Asha

Manoj

Rajesh

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Urbanization drives land-use and patterns of biodiversity. Yet, very little is known about how biodiversity of structurally different habitats is responded to urbanization. We surveyed coprophagous dung beetles and their ecological functional groups—tunnellers, dwellers, and rollers—in shaded natural semi-evergreen forests of sacred groves and the neighbouring relatively open home gardens of sites that represent three levels of urbanization to address the following questions: (1) Do sacred groves have higher abundance, richness, and diversity of dung beetles than home gardens? (2) Is urbanization a key driver of dung beetle abundance, richness, diversity, and community? (3) Is dung beetle assemblage of sacred groves immune to urbanization? and (4) Which ecological functional groups of dung beetles are affected by urbanization? We hypothesized that the sacred groves have a distinct community, resulting in higher abundance, richness, and diversity of dung beetles than home gardens, and the dung beetle assemblage of sacred groves may be immune to urbanization. We sampled the beetles during wet and dry periods using cow dung as a bait. Against our predictions, dung beetle abundance, richness, and diversity were higher in used lands than sacred groves, particularly in urban landscapes. The two habitats had distinct compositions of dung beetles. Tunnellers and rollers were affected by urbanization, but not dwellers. Heliophilic and synanthropic species characterized by smaller species dominated overall catches in the used lands of urban areas. Results downplay sacred grove as a potential refuge for dung beetles and suggest that the biodiversity of native forests may be affected more by urbanization than the manipulated anthropogenic habitats.

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“…Furthermore, carabid beetles display diurnal or nocturnal activity patterns in lowland and alpine areas depending on their species characteristics, habitat type, and ground surface temperature [23]. Daytime factors, soil surface temperature, season, locality [64], fragmentation, and land-use changes [65] have also been reported to affect the diurnal activity of ground-dwelling beetles in forests and clear-cut areas. Therefore, soil parameters, season, habitat, and land use should be considered to understand the hourly dynamics of ground-dwelling beetles in farmlands.…”

Section: Hourly Dynamics Of Abundance In Each Taxonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Study on Hourly Dynamics of a Ground-Dwelling Invertebrate Community in a Farmland Vineyard

Gao,

Sun,

et al. 2024

Insects

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We evaluated the hourly dynamics of ground-dwelling invertebrate communities in farmland using infrared camera traps between August and September 2022. No significant variations within 24 h nor between any two time points of each day were observed in the taxonomic richness and abundance of the entire community. However, the periods from 4:00 to 7:00 and 13:00 to 20:00 showed relatively high taxonomic richness, while those from 2:00 to 6:00 and 16:00 to 21:00 showed relatively high abundance. Millipede abundance varied significantly in a 24 h period, with higher abundance from 3:00 to 4:00 and 1:00 to 2:00. Additionally, slug, beetle, and grasshopper abundances were significantly higher from 22:00 to 23:00, 17:00 to 18:00, and 23:00 to 24:00, respectively. The abundance of other taxa did not show significant variations between any two time points of a day. Predominant generalist predators showed positive correlation in their activity times. These results suggest that significant variations within each 24 h period are uncommon at either community or taxa (except for millipedes) levels in farmland ground-dwelling invertebrates. Further, while most taxa had significantly preferred active hours, the total community did not. Therefore, hourly dynamics should be considered to understand biodiversity maintenance.

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Roller dung beetles of dung piles suggest habitats are alike, but that of guarding pitfall traps suggest habitats are different

Cited by 4 publications

References 31 publications

Urban tropical forest islets as hotspots of ants in general and invasive ants in particular

Urban tropical forest islets as hotspots of ants in general and invasive ants in particular

Dung beetles prefer used land over natural greenspace in urban landscape

Preliminary Study on Hourly Dynamics of a Ground-Dwelling Invertebrate Community in a Farmland Vineyard

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