Check List 4(4): 458-463, doi: 10.15560/4.4.458
Dung-beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabeidae) from the Zona Protectora Las Tablas, Talamanca, Costa Rica
expand article infoJosé F. González-Maya‡, Juan Mata-Lorenzen§
‡ Proyecto de Conservación del Aguas y Tierras (Costa Rica) ProCAT Colombia, Colombia§ Proyecto de Conservación del Aguas y Tierras Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Colombia

Corresponding author: José González-Maya ( jfgonzalezmaya@gmail.com )

© 2017 José González-Maya, Juan Mata-Lorenzen.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: González-Maya J, Mata-Lorenzen J (2008) Dung-beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabeidae) from the Zona Protectora Las Tablas, Talamanca, Costa Rica. Check List 4(4): 458-463. https://doi.org/10.15560/4.4.458
Open Access
Abstract
Dung-beetle species are considered an important focal indicator group in tropical forests. During 2007, eighteen traps were set in two permanent biodiversity plots during one week surveys in Las Tablas Protected Zone within La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. The main purpose of this study was to determine the group composition and diversity as the basis for permanent monitoring and to measure potential impacts of land use change and climate change on mountain diversity. Pitfall traps were placed randomly within the plots with human feces as bait. A total of 26 species distributed in 13 genera and six tribes were collected. The composition of species includes eight endemic species, seven for Costa Rica (CR) and Panama and one only for CR. The diversity found in this study was typical of previous studies in the region. Further sampling is needed to obtain the total number of species for the area. This study is part of an on-going research project about climate change impacts and biodiversity monitoring in this important ecoregion of Mesoamerica.
Keywords
Insecta; Coleoptera; Scarabeidae; species inventory; Costa Rica