Water Is Needed to Exist: Habitat Preferences of Tiger Beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) in a Desert Country

Insects
Radomir Jaskuła, Mateusz Płóciennik

Abstract

Tiger beetles are a group of predatory insects occurring mainly in diverse sandy areas, with particular species often characterised by narrow habitat preferences, which makes them both very important bioindicators for determining patterns of biodiversity and a flagship group for nature conservation. However, the precise roles of particular habitat parameters in the distribution of these beetles in desert areas are almost unknown. Habitat preferences for four tiger beetles species were analysed in Tunisia. Fifty samples from a major part of the country were collected, for which climate data, macrohabitat types. and soil parameters (soil humidity, salinity, pH, and structure) were studied. Here we show that most studied Cicindelidae were characterised by unique habitat preferences and did not co-occur with other ones, including two taxa found as habitat specialists, occurring in only one type of macrohabitat. Two other species were noted as more eurythopic and occupied 2-3 macrohabitat types, with Lophyraflexuosa as the most ubiquitous species not related to the measured parameters. The presence of a source of water (understood as a part of the habitat type, such as river banks and oases, or high soil humidity) was found as the m...Continue Reading

References

Mar 8, 2000·Nature·N MyersJ Kent
Apr 26, 2016·ZooKeys·Andrey V Matalin, Vladimir I Chikatunov
Jun 26, 2017·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Alejandro López-López, Alfried P Vogler

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BETA
MDS
PCA

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Canoco
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