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Dung beetles of Central Europe: Diversity and conservation
AMBROŽOVÁ, Lucie
The thesis consists of three conservation-oriented studies, mainly focusing on the factors determining dung beetle diversity in Central Europe. We assessed the role of routine ivermectin treatment on diversity and functional performance of dung beetle community. Alternative forest managements of coppicing and additional topsoil removal were evaluated in terms of their suitability for increasing diversity of dung-inhabiting dung and rove beetles. Further, we examined environmental and management-related factors driving dung beetle beta-diversity to facilitate conservation prioritization of Central European dung beetles.
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Diversity of the geotrupide genus Jekelius (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae)
Sommer, David ; Král, David (advisor) ; Bezděk, Aleš (referee)
The first part of this thesis focuses on the family Geotrupidae, with special focus on the representatives of the genus Jekelius. It summarizes the present and historical taxonomic concepts and phylogenetic relationships within this family. Moreover, the morphology of adults and larvae and the geographical distribution of individual taxa are described. In the section on the biology and ecology of the family, emphasis is placed especially on feeding strategies, breeding behaviour and parental care. The results of this thesis consist of three parts, 1) taxonomy, 2) molecular analyses, and 3) flow cytometry. The first part brings a taxonomic revision of the Jekelius brullei species complex defined here. This part focuses on redescribing each known species, as well as describing additional species not yet formally described. This thesis defines the distribution ranges of each species based on previously published literature and our own data. Molecular analyses performed in this thesis generated a phylogenetic tree including a significant part of the species of the Jekelius brullei species complex. The last part of the thesis presents results obtained by flow cytometry for representatives of the species complex Jekelius brullei and a number of other taxa of the family Geotrupidae. The discussion then...
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Feeding strategies in geotrupids (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae)
Sommer, David ; Král, David (advisor) ; Vondráček, Dominik (referee)
The work summarizes the biology (life histories) of the family Geotrupidae. Historical findings are confronted with current knowledge. The study is focused mainly on food strategies within the family Geotrupidae, their evolutionary origin, differences across taxa within the family and the existence of certain trends within different taxa and family as a whole. The nutritional strategies of adults and larvae are compared, as well as the conditions that can lead to a changesin feedings strategies. The general section parts are devoted to taxonomy and phylogeny of the subfamilies within the family Geotrupidae, adult morphology and larvae and their geographical distribution. In the section part dedicated to the biology of individual subfamily, in addition to the feeding strategies, the biotopes of individual taxa, the presence or absence of parental care, and the knowledge of nesting behavior of beetles are listed. The primary nutritional strategy of the family is coprophagy, but the change in food strategies has occurred in this family several times independently. No trend within the family was traced. Changing the feeding strategy from cognition to phytophagy occurred only once in evolution, and in adults of the subfamily Lethrinae. Both obligatory and facultative saprophagies have evolved in the...
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Examination of the diversity and digging activity of dung beetles in pasture
ANDĚL, Tomáš
The survey of the diversity of coprophagous beetles (Scarabaeidae, Geotrupidae, and Hydrophilidae families) and their soil activity took place at two sites in a cattle pasture in southern Bohemia (site A: 49°29'31.720"N, 14°23'44.310"E; site B: 49°29'23.257"N, 14°23'35.964"E; 575 m a. s. l.). Baited pitfall traps with fresh cow dung (1.5 l per trap) were used to capture the beetles. During the survey of the diversity of coprophagous beetle community, a total of 29 species of beetles numbering 1,189 specimens were captured from May to September 2013. Of these, the most numerous were the beetles of the genus Aphodius, who made up 79 % of the total number of captured specimens. In terms of biomass, Geotrupes spiniger (Marsham, 1802) was significant, in that it made up 24 % of the total biomass of all of the captured beetles. This species contributes most to the decomposition of dung in the pasture. The family with the least number of specimens was Hydrophilidae. Beetles from this family made up 19 % of total number. Measurement of soil activity took place repeatedly over the course of 3 weeks, always after one-week measurement of diversity. The most numerous species (A. fimetarius, A. rufus and A. fossor) showed a linear dependence of the abundances in soil-activity traps on the abundances in diversity traps from the precedent capture period. A. sticticus was one of the most numerous species during surveys of diversity (10 %). This species, belonging to the dwellers group, was not recorded in soil-activity traps, however. Large tunnellers were represented mainly by G. spiniger in traps, for which the linear dependence was not possible to confirm.
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The influence of pasture on biodiversity of invertebrates in sub-mountain localities - coprophagous beetles
SVOBODA, Lukáš
The effect of the pasture management on dung beetle communities was studied on three sites in Šumava Mts. (South and West Bohemia). The intensity of pasturing was different: 78 cattle on the first, 106 on the second and 162 on the third pasture. The beetles were collected using pitfall traps baited by 1.5 litres of fresh cattle dung. The traps were located on each pasture. Altogether 3 traps were used per each pasture. The pitfall traps were exposed in the pasture for 7 days in monthly repetitions from April to October 2008. Totally 8725 specimen and 33 species of beetles were collected. These species belong to families Scarabaeidae,Geotrupidae and Hydrophilidae. The number of species and individuals was evaluated for each pasture, as well as seasonal dynamics and biomass distribution. The results indicate that the more intensive pasturing has the positive effect on the activity of some groups of coprophagous beetles.Other effects of the different pasture management on the beetles were not documented.
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