title: Influences of different large mammalian fauna on dung beetle diversity in beech forests.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Satoyama Science Research Center, Faculty of Agriculture, Utsunomiya University, Minemachi 350, Utsunomiya, Tochigi 321-8505, Japan. enari@tds1.tr.yamagata-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hiroto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Enari
authors.forename: Shinsuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koike
authors.forename: Haruka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakamaki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D002417:Cattle; D001517:Coleoptera; D029964:Fagus; D005243:Feces; D007564:Japan; D008251:Macaca; D008297:Male; D008322:Mammals
references.citation: Am J Primatol. 1999;48(4):253-62
references.pmid: 10402034