Do flying beetles respond to human-dominated landscapes as complex mosaics or binary patterns

Understanding and measuring functional connectivity for animals with habitats that have been fragmented by human\udactivity requires that the biology and movement of the species be considered. We used least cost paths in GIS\udto test hypotheses regarding how different species of longhorned beetles likely connect habitats with dispersal.\udWe predicted that there would be differences in the functional connectivity of landscapes depending on species\udlarval niche breadth, adult feeding habits, and the potential for use of non-forest habitats. For the species with very\udspecialized larvae, we developed a classification tree to determine areas likely to contain the appropriate species of\udhost tree. Connectivity calculated using least cost paths did not out-perform Euclidean distances for three generalist\udbeetles. This was also the case for the specialist beetle species when all forest was considered habitat. However,\udwhen we delineated habitat based on areas likely to support the host tree the functional connectivity incorporating\udleast cost paths was a much better predictor than that using Euclidean distances. Generalists may respond to\udfragmented habitat in a binary habitat-matrix way while more specialized species may respond to a mosaic. These\udtrends are obscured if habitat is defined by human perceptions rather than species biology