Dung Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae:Scarabaeinae) Community in Habitats under Different Usage Intensity in Yuscarán, Honduras

Abstract

The Municipality of Yuscarán is under continuous habitat degradation processes due to invasive agriculture and cattle practices. Dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) are sensitive to habitat disturbance. The objective of this study was to describe how the dung beetle community structure is modified from less to more perturbed habitats throughout three different landscapes, according to the intensity of land use and vegetation structure. The investigation took place from June to December 2012 in a Tropical Evergreen Pine Forest and in a Deciduous Woodland. Each forest type consisted of two different areas divided by 3 collection sites according to land use. Beetles were collected in pitfall traps baited with cow dung. Vegetation structure and abiotic parameters were determined per habitat. A total of 2,749 beetles were captured, belonging to 9 tribes, 11 genera, and 21 species. Mean beetle abundance was reduced by 50% due to increased human intervention. In the Evergreen Forest, the dung beetle community structure was mainly formed by forest specialists and generalists, whereas in the Deciduous Woodland the dung beetle community was formed mainly by generalist and heliophilic species. The study shows how human intervention diminishes the richness, diversity, and abundance of the dung beetle communities in the Evergreen Forest. However, there is an inverse scenario in the Deciduous Woodland where the results indicated that there could be a faunal homogenization of generalist beetles, biased towards degraded and highly perturbed habitats.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5377/ceiba.v52i2.1758