Satoyama Science Research Center, Faculty of Agriculture, Utsunomiya University, Minemachi 350, Utsunomiya, Tochigi 321-8505, Japan.
J Insect Sci. 2013;13:54. doi: 10.1673/031.013.5401.
This paper focuses on biological relationships between mammalian species richness and the community structure of dung beetles in cool-temperate forests in the northernmost part of mainland Japan. The composition of beetle assemblages was evaluated at 3 sites in undisturbed beech forests with different mammalian fauna. In spring and summer 2009, beetles were collected at each site using pitfall traps baited with feces from Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata Blyth (Primates: Cercopithecidae); Asiatic black bears, Ursus thibetanus Cuvier (Carnivora: Ursidae); Japanese serows, Capricornis crispus Temminck (Artiodactyla: Bovidae); and cattle. In the present study, 1,862 dung beetles representing 14 species were collected, and most dung beetles possessed the ecological characteristic of selecting specific mammalian feces. The present findings indicated that although species diversity in dung beetle assemblages was not necessarily positively correlated with mammalian species richness in cool-temperate forests, the absence of the macaque population directly resulted in the marked reduction of the beetle abundance, with the loss of the most frequent species, Aphodius eccoptus Bates (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) during spring.
本文主要探讨了日本本州最北部凉爽森林中哺乳动物物种丰富度与蜣螂群落结构之间的生物关系。在 3 个未受干扰的山毛榉林中的不同哺乳动物区系的地点评估了甲虫组合的组成。在 2009 年春季和夏季，每个地点都使用带有日本猕猴、Macaca fuscata Blyth（灵长目：长尾猴科）、亚洲黑熊、Ursus thibetanus Cuvier（食肉目：熊科）、日本青羊、Capricornis crispus Temminck（偶蹄目：牛科）和牛的粪便作为诱饵的陷阱来收集甲虫。在本研究中，收集了 1862 只代表 14 个物种的蜣螂，大多数蜣螂具有选择特定哺乳动物粪便的生态特征。本研究结果表明，尽管凉爽森林中蜣螂组合的物种多样性不一定与哺乳动物物种丰富度呈正相关，但猕猴种群的缺失直接导致了春季时蜣螂数量的明显减少，最常见的物种 Aphodius eccoptus Bates（鞘翅目：金龟科）也消失了。
