Fire is a major agent involved in landscape transformation and an indirect cause of changes in species composition. Responses to fire may vary greatly depending on life histories and functional ...traits of species. We have examined the taxonomic and functional responses to fire of eight taxonomic animal groups displaying a gradient of dietary and mobility patterns: Gastropoda, Heteroptera, Formicidae, Coleoptera, Araneae, Orthoptera, Reptilia and Aves. The fieldwork was conducted in a Mediterranean protected area on 3 sites (one unburnt and two burnt with different postfire management practices) with five replicates per site. We collected information from 4606 specimens from 274 animal species. Similarity in species composition and abundance between areas was measured by the Bray-Curtis index and ANOSIM, and comparisons between animal and plant responses by Mantel tests. We analyze whether groups with the highest percentage of omnivorous species, these species being more generalist in their dietary habits, show weak responses to fire (i.e. more similarity between burnt and unburnt areas), and independent responses to changes in vegetation. We also explore how mobility, i.e. dispersal ability, influences responses to fire. Our results demonstrate that differences in species composition and abundance between burnt and unburnt areas differed among groups. We found a tendency towards presenting lower differences between areas for groups with higher percentages of omnivorous species. Moreover, taxa with a higher percentage of omnivorous species had significantly more independent responses of changes in vegetation. High- (e.g. Aves) and low-mobility (e.g. Gastropoda) groups had the strongest responses to fire (higher R scores of the ANOSIM); however, we failed to find a significant general pattern with all the groups according to their mobility. Our results partially support the idea that functional traits underlie the response of organisms to environmental changes caused by fire.
In the summer of 2012, two fires affected Mediterranean ecosystems in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. The size of these fires was at the extreme of the historical variability (megafires). Animals are ...traditionally assumed to recolonize from source populations outside of the burned area (exogenous regeneration) while plants recover from endogenous regeneration (resprouting and seeding). However, there is increasing evidence of in situ fire survival in animals. To evaluate the effect of large-scale fires on biodiversity and the mechanism of recovery, in 2013, we set up 12 plots per fire, covering burned vegetation at different distances from the fire perimeter and unburned vegetation. In each plot, we followed the postfire recovery of arthropods, reptiles (including some of their parasites), and plants for 2 to 5 years. Here we present the resulting database (POSTDIV) of taxon abundance. POSTDIV totals 19,906 records for 457 arthropod taxa (113,681 individuals), 12 reptile taxa (503 individuals), 4 reptile parasites (234 individuals), and 518 plant taxa (cover-abundance). We provide examples in the R language to query the database.
Genus Ernobius C. G. Thomson, 1859 is recorded for the first time in Korea, with the presence of two species described from Japan recently collected at the locality of Daejeon. For each species, ...morphological description, distribution, and biology are given, and pictures of the habitus, antenna, and male aedeagus are provided. The existing problem about the determination of the species because of a poor representation of the aedeagus in the species of the genus given by the different authors is discussed. In addition, the probable specific invalidity of Ernobius sakai Zahradník, 2013 described from China is also discussed.
Es continua amb aquesta nota la revisió de la subfamília Dorcatominae a la península Ibèrica i les illes Balears. Es donen els caràcters taxonòmics, la distribució, la biologia i la bibliografia de ...les vuit espècies del gènere presents a la Península, ja que no hi ha cap citació de les Balears. S’aporten claus subgenèriques i específiques, així com la representació gràfica de les antenes, l’últim artell dels palps maxil·lars, l’edeagus en visió ventral amb detall de la peça mitjana i l’habitus de totes les espècies.
Amb la revisió del gènere Stagetus Wollaston, 1861, es finalitza la revisió de la subfamília Dorcatominae en la península Ibèrica i les illes Balears. Es descriu Stagetus confusus n. sp. del sud ...peninsular i del nord d’Àfrica. S’aclareix la posició sistemàtica i confusa distribució de Stagetus puncticollis Reitter, 1884, espècie que sembla trobar-se només a la mediterrània oriental. Es donen els caràcters taxonòmics, la distribució, la biologia i la bibliografia de les onze espècies del gènere presents a la península Ibèrica i a les illes Balears. Es donen claus específiques, així com la representació gràfica de les antenes, últim artell dels palps maxil·lars, edeagus en visió ventral i habitus de totes les espècies.
We studied the diversity of beetle families in watermelon fields in the palm grove of Zaatote at Ouargla (34º 54′ N, 5º 20′ E). The sampling method used was Barber pots as they allowed the largest ...number of captures of insects, regarding both individuals and species. Over the three years of the study (2016, 2017 and 2018), we identified 787 individuals from 12 taxonomic families. Throughout the sampling period, the Coccinellidae family was clearly dominant, with an Fc = 35.02 % in 2016, 36.2 % in 2017 and 34.34 % in 2018. The second most dominant family was Tenebrionidae with an Fc = 26.35 % in 2016, 30.04 % in 2017, and 33.33 % in 2018. Other families were poorly represented. In 2016, regarding their trophism, 18 species of beetles (30.91 %) were phytophagous and feed on the watermelon crop, while 26 species were predatory and decomposing auxiliaries.
Data published through GBIF (Doi: 10.15470/sfhxty)
Ecological diversification on islands typically results in divergence of ecological niches. As diet is a major component of species niches, we hypothesize that sister species within island ...monophyletic groups diversify in their dietary preferences. We have examined this hypothesis in two Haemodracon and four Hemidactylus species endemic reptiles of from Socotra Island (Yemen), corresponding to two independent colonization events. Convergence i.e., similar dietary patterns of phylogenetically unrelated species, was also examined. Trophic niches were studied by the analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes combined with faecal samples. We collected tail tips (for isotopes) and faecal pellets during two visits in 2013 and 2014 to Socotra. Specific trophic niche widths inferred from stable isotopes were estimated from ellipse-based metrics, whereas interspecific differences were compared by linear mixed models and examined in a phylogenetic framework. From faecal samples, diet variation among species was quantified by the Bray-Curtis index. Isotope and dietary interspecific divergence was compared with Mantel tests. For both isotopes, models detected interspecific differences between sister species i.e., trophic niche divergence and also interspecific similarities of distant lineages that use similar microhabitats i.e., ecological convergence. We did not find any phylogenetic signal neither in the interspecific differences in δ13C nor in δ15N isotopic values; thus species phylogenetically more closely related did not have more similar isotopic niches. The Mantel test demonstrated similar interspecific divergence using isotopes and faecal samples. In a phylogenetic context, trophic-niche interspecific comparisons highlight some mechanisms that are driving ecological diversification and speciation of Socotra Island.
En aquest article es descriu una nova espècie del gènere Stagetus Wollaston, 1861, (Coleoptera, Ptinidae, Dorcatominae) de Tabernas, província d’Almeria. Els exemplars estudiats van ser recol·lectats ...per R. Macià en el decurs d’una de les seves darreres campanyes per a l’estudi de la biodiversitat dels lepidòpters peninsulars (octubre de 2011). Stagetus cobosi n. sp. està ben caracteritzada i es diferencia d’altres espècies del gènere per la forma del protòrax, pel puntejat de les estries i la superfície dels intervals i, en especial, per la forma del lòbul mig de l’edeagus, els lòbuls dels paràmers i l’estructura de les peces mitjanes, a més d’altres detalls de la morfologia externa com les antenes, l’últim artell dels palps maxil·lars, la pubescència, etc.
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