Inferring the Provenance of an Alien Species with DNA Barcodes: The Neotropical Butterfly Dryas iulia in Thailand

The Neotropical butterfly Dryas iulia has been collected from several locations in Thailand and Malaysia since 2007, and has been observed breeding in the wild, using introduced Passiflora foetida as a larval host plant. The butterfly is bred by a butterfly house in Phuket, Thailand, for release at weddings and Buddhist ceremonies, and we hypothesized that this butterfly house was the source of wild, Thai individuals. We compared wing patterns and COI barcodes from two, wild Thai populations with individuals obtained from this butterfly house. All Thai individuals resemble the subspecies D. iulia modesta, and barcodes from wild and captive Thai specimens were identical. This unique, Thai barcode was not found in any of the 30 specimens sampled from the wild in the species\u27 native range, but is most similar to specimens from Costa Rica, where many exporting butterfly farms are located. These data implicate the butterfly house as the source of Thailand\u27s wild D. iulia populations, which are currently so widespread that eradication efforts are unlikely to be successful

Comparison of rainforest butterfly assemblages across three biogeographical regions using standardized protocols

Insects, like most other organisms, are more diverse in tropical than in temperate regions, but standardized comparisons of diversity among tropical regions are rare. Disentangling the effects of ecological, evolutionary, and biogeographic factors on community diversity requires standardized protocols and long-term studies. We compared the abundance and diversity of butterflies using standardised ‘Pollard walk’ transect counts in the understory of closed-canopy lowland rainforests in Panama (Barro Colorado Island, BCI), Thailand (Khao Chong, KHC) and Papua New Guinea (Wanang, WAN). We observed 1792, 1797 and 3331 butterflies representing 128, 131 and 134 species during 230, 231 and 120 transects at BCI, KHC and WAN, respectively. When corrected for length and duration of transects, butterfly abundance and species richness were highest at WAN and KHC, respectively. Although high butterfly abundance at WAN did not appear to result from methodological artefacts, the biological meaning of this observation remains obscure. The WAN site appeared as floristically diverse as KHC, but supported lower butterfly diversity. This emphasizes that factors other than plant diversity, such as biogeographic history, may be crucial for explaining butterfly diversity. The KHC butterfly fauna may be unusually species rich because the site is at a biogeographic crossroads between the Indochinese and Sundaland regions. In contrast, WAN is firmly within the Australian biogeographic region and relatively low species numbers may result from island biogeographic processes. The common species at each of the three sites shared several traits: fruit and nectar feeders were equally represented, more than half of common species fed on either epiphytes or lianas as larvae, and their range in wing sizes was similar. These observations suggest that Pollard walks in different tropical rainforests target similar assemblages of common species, and, hence, represent a useful tool for long-term monitoring of rainforest butterfly assemblages.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Insect assemblages attacking seeds and fruits in a rainforest in Thailand

Insect seed predators are important agents of mortality for tropical trees, but little is known about the impact of these herbivores in rainforests. During three years at Khao Chong (KHC) in southern Thailand we reared 17,555 insects from 343.2 kg or 39,252 seeds/fruits representing 357 liana and tree species. A commented list of the 243 insect species identified is provided, with details about their host plants. We observed that: (1) about 43% of identified species can be considered pests. Most were seed eaters, particularly on dry fruits. (2) About 19% of parasitoid species (all Opiinae) for which we could determine whether their primary insect host was a pest or not (all Bactrocera spp. breeding in fruits) can be considered beneficials. (3) The seeds/fruits of about 28% of the plant species in this forest were free of attack. Phyllanthaceae, Rubiaceae, and Meliaceae were attacked relatively infrequently; in contrast, Annonaceae, Fabaceae, Sapindaceae, and Myristicaceae were more heavily attacked. There was no apparent effect of plant phylogeny on rates of attack but heavily attacked tree species had larger basal area in the KHC plot than rarely attacked tree species. (4) Insects reared from fleshy fruits were more likely to exhibit relatively stable populations compared to insects reared from dry fruits, but this was not true of insects reared from dipterocarps, which appeared to have relatively stable populations throughout the study period. We tentatively conclude that insects feeding on seeds and fruits have little effect on observed levels of host abundance in this forest

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk).We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015

Two new species of Aleocharinae (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) found in fungus gardens of Odontotermes termites (Isoptera, Termitidae, Macrotermitinae) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

Discoxenus katayamai sp. n. and Odontoxenus thailandicus sp. n. are described from Khao Yai National Park, East Thailand. Both species were collected from nests of termite of the genus Odontotermes Holmgren, 1912. These are the first records of both genera from Thailand. Discoxenus katayamai is similar to D. indicus Wasmann, 1904, and O. thailandicus is similar to O. butteri (Wasmann, 1916). Each species is easily distinguished from their congeners by the body size, the number of the setae on the pronotum, elytra and abdomen and other characters discussed below

2008. Diversity of pselaphine beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae

Abstract Pselaphine beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) are cosmopolitan, species-rich, and yet poorly studied, particularly in the tropics. We sampled beetles in three types of primary forest and two types of disturbed forest habitats in eastern Thailand to assess the utility of pselaphine beetles as bioindicators of forest disturbance. We simultaneously measured leaf litter mass, soil moisture, soil acidity and canopy cover at each site to infer which environmental factors affect pselaphine beetle diversity and abundance. At each site, pselaphine beetles were extracted from ten 1 m 2 samples of leaf litter and soil with Tullgren funnels. We sampled 1867 adult beetles representing six supertribes, 51 genera and 114 morphospecies; 7% of the genera and 92% of the species were undescribed. Forest types differed significantly in species richness, abundance, diversity and evenness. Primary forest had greater numbers of species and individuals, and higher diversity indices (H′). Teak plantation and secondary forest had substantially fewer individuals and species of pselaphine beetles. Species composition differed between primary and degraded forests. Canopy cover, soil moisture, and leaf litter mass positively correlated with beetle species richness and abundance. Leaf litter mass and soil moisture were the two most important factors affecting the diversity of pselaphine beetle assemblages. Among the 114 morphospecies collected, 43 morphospecies were specific to two or three habitats and 64 morphospecies were found only in a single habitat. Thus pselaphine beetles appear to have rather narrow habitat requirements and their presence/absence was correlated with environmental differences. These traits make pselaphine beetles a suitable bioindicator taxon for assessing forest litter diversity and monitoring habitat change

On the myrmecophilous genus Systellus Kleine (Coleoptera: Brentidae), with systematic and biological notes on S. mentaweicus (Senna)

Maruyama, Munetoshi, Morimoto, Katsura, Bartolozzi, Luca, Sakchoowong, Watana, Hashim, Rosli (2014): On the myrmecophilous genus Systellus Kleine (Coleoptera: Brentidae), with systematic and biological notes on S. mentaweicus (Senna). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 62: 805-811, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.535639

Larval juice anyone? The unusual behaviour and morphology of an ant nest beetle larva (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Paussini) from Thailand

The third instar larva of Paussus siamensis Maruyama, 2016 (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Paussini) from Thailand, belonging to the Paussus hystrix group (sensu Maruyama, 2016), is described and illustrated by using both light and scanning electron (SEM) microscopy. Unlike other Paussus larvae, this larva was found inside a self-dug hole, in a nest of Pheidole plagiaria ants. Behavioural observations, documented by pictures taken in the field, show a peculiar strategy of P. siamensis larva to exudate big drops of transparent liquid from the thorax, promptly sucked by worker host ants. Behaviour of Paussus larvae is still unknown, but, due to their structural homogeneity, we suspect that digging and supplying attractive substances can be widespread within this genus. The similarity between P. siamensis and P. kannegieteri larvae, both Indo-Malayan species and guests of the same ant, is in agreement with their recent placement in the subgenus Scaphipaussus Fowler (sensu Robertson & Moore, 2016)

A new species of the genus Euplatyrhopalus (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Paussinae) from Thailand

Euplatyrhopalus tadauchii sp. nov. (Paussini, Platyrhopalina) is described based on specimens collected with flight interception traps and light traps in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand