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Flight capabilities and feeding habits of silphine beetles: are flightless species really “carrion beetles”?
Author(s) -
Ikeda Hiroshi,
Kubota Kohei,
Kagaya Takashi,
Abe Toshio
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
ecological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1440-1703
pISSN - 0912-3814
DOI - 10.1007/s11284-006-0012-1
Subject(s) - carrion , biology , invertebrate , ecology , sexual dimorphism , vertebrate , isotope analysis , zoology , biochemistry , gene
We determined the flight capabilities and feeding habits of adults of nine silphine beetle species and illustrated their relationship. We examined the silphine beetles for the presence or absence of flight muscles and estimated their feeding habits by comparing the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios for them with those of necrophagous nicrophorine species and carnivorous carabine species. Three species ( Silpha longicornis , S. perforata and Phosphuga atrata ) completely lacked individuals with flight muscles, and one species ( Eusilpha japonica ) showed flight muscle dimorphism. Stable isotope analysis suggested that these species were carnivores, mainly feeding on soil invertebrates. Most flight species showed higher isotopic ratios than the flightless species. Some of them have isotopic ratios close to those of the nicrophorine species, suggesting that these species mainly feed on vertebrate carcasses. Flightless silphine species would have limited ability to search for patchy and unpredictable carcass resources. Further studies are necessary to understand the adaptive evolution of flight capability and the feeding habits in this group.