Description
The dataset comprises a subset of the information recorded in the thesis “Dung beetle traits: a conceptual, experimental and biogeographical approach”. It contains 2086 occurrences of Scarabaeidae species recorded from Mexico, Morocco and South Africa and 4 occurrences of Trogidae family from Morocco. Dung beetles specimens were surveyed along aridity gradients at the border of three deserts: Chihuahua (Mexico), Kalahari (South Africa) and Sahara (Morocco). The sampling campaigns took place before the rainy season (September 2013-14 Sahara, November 2014 Kalahari) and after the rainy season (April 2013-2014 Sahara, May 2014 Sahara and September 2015 Chihuahua). The National Spanish Museum of Sciences kept the specimens preserved at the 'Entomología' collection. Those from South Africa and Mexico were dried. A wing and elytra were extracted and pinned. Specimens from Morocco were preserved in alcohol.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 2,090 records.
1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
deCastro I (2020): Dung beetles specimens along aridity gradients at the border of three deserts: Chihuahua (Mexico), Kalahari (South Africa) and Sahara (Morocco), 2013-2015.. v1.4. Spanish National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC). Dataset/Occurrence. https://doi.org/10.15470/pjxmep
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 39a06c30-dcfd-4a4e-bde8-a0be882fb33f. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Spain.
Keywords
Occurrence; Specimen
Contacts
- Author ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6558-5730
- Curator
- Point Of Contact
- Curator
- Principal Investigator
- Principal Investigator
- Processor
Geographic Coverage
30 different locations were surveyed from 3 different countries. 1842 occurrences from Sahara desert Morocco, 48 from Chihuhua desert in Mexico and 200 from Kalahari desert in South Africa.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [-90, -180], North East [90, 180] |
|---|
Taxonomic Coverage
Occurrences described in this dataset pertain to Scarabaeidae family and comprise 50 different genus of dung beetles. 5 occurrences were identified to family level, 59 to genus level and 2022 to species level. This dataset also contains 4 records of Trogidae family identified to species level.
| Class | Insecta |
|---|---|
| Order | Coleoptera |
| Family | Scarabaeidae |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2013-04-10 / 2015-09-12 |
|---|
Project Data
Desentrañando los determinantes geográficos y evolutivos de la diversidad de coleópteros coprógafos del Paleártico Occidental.
| Title | SCARPO - Desentrañando los determinantes geográficos y evolutivos de la diversidad de coleópteros coprógafos del Paleártico Occidental. |
|---|---|
| Identifier | CGL2011-29317 |
| Funding | "SCARPO - Desentrañando los determinantes geográficos y evolutivos de la diversidad de coleópteros coprógafos del Paleártico Occidental (CGL2011-29317), and the associated FPI grant BES-2012-054353, funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad". |
The personnel involved in the project:
- Principal Investigator
Sampling Methods
Dung beetles were sampled during four campaigns held in two consecutive years: two in the wet season (April 2013 and 2014) and two in the dry season (September 2013 and 2014). In each campaign we surveyed 10 sampling sites along the Moroccan road N17 from the Sahara towards the Mediterranean, separated by an interval of around 40 km. All sampling sites were placed at least 100m away from the road margin.
| Study Extent | The study area comprises the border of three deserts: Chihuahua (Mexico), Kalahari (South Africa) and Sahara (Morocco). In each of the deserts a transect 400km long was designed to capture the variability of a severe aridity gradient from 300mm to 100mm of total annual rainfall. Thus, the driest areas had scarce vegetation (<5cm high) and very low density (<1 individual per 1m²) and the wettest areas had shruby to sparse savanna ecosystems (small trees of various species, including Acacia in the Kalahari) or low intensity agroecosystems (specially in the wet areas of the Sahara desert). There was presence of livestock along the transects of the three deserts varying from cattle in the wettest study areas to lots of sheep/goats and some donkeys in the driest study areas of the three deserts. Even some dromedary at the Sahara desert. For more details on the Saharan study area see https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5210. |
|---|
Method step description:
- We surveyed 10 sampling sites along the Moroccan road N17 from the Sahara towards the Mediterranean, separated by an interval of around 40 km. Sampling and beetle collection were carried out under research permits Reference Numbers 01/2013 HCEFLCD/DLCDPN/DPRN/CFF and 01/2014 HCEFLCD/DLCDPN/DPRN/CFF issued by the Haut Commisariat aux Eaux et Forêts et à Lutte Contre la Désertification (Morocco). All sampling sites were placed at least 100m away from the road margin.
Collection Data
| Collection Name | Colección de entomología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales |
|---|---|
| Collection Identifier | 835bf26e-f762-11e1-a439-00145eb45e9a |
| Parent Collection Identifier | MNCN |
| Specimen preservation methods | Alcohol, Dried |
|---|
Bibliographic Citations
- DeCastro Arrazola, Indradatta. Dung beetle traits: a conceptual, experimental and biogeographical approach. Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2018. [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/54301] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/54301
- deCastro-Arrazola I, Hortal J, Moretti M, Sánchez-Piñero F. 2018. Spatial and temporal variations of aridity shape dung beetle assemblages towards the Sahara desert. PeerJ 6:e5210 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5210
Additional Metadata
Specimens from South Africa and Mexico were dried. A wing and elytra were extracted and pinned. Specimens from Morocco were preserved in alcohol.
| Alternative Identifiers | 10.15470/pjxmep |
|---|---|
| 39a06c30-dcfd-4a4e-bde8-a0be882fb33f | |
| https://ipt.gbif.es/resource?r=dung_beetles |