Diversidad de escarabajos estiercoleros en el bosque y en cacaotales con diferente estructura y composición florística en Talamanca, Costa Rica1

A study on dung beetle (Scarabaeidae) species richness and abundance in five habitats (slightly disturbed primary forests and four different types of cacao plantations) was carried out in the Talamanca indigenous reserve, Costa Rica. Dung beetles were collected between April and June 2002, in 25 farms (five per habitat). In each farm, a matrix of 25 pig dung-baited pitfall traps (five parallel transects, each 40 m long, with five traps per transect) was sampled. A total of 36 dung beetle species were collected. The most abundant species was Onthophagus acuminatus (1723 individuals) and the rarest was Canthon hartmanni (one individual). There were differences between habitats in the number of genus and species, but not in the abundance, Berger-Parker's dominance index and the diversity or equity indexes. The number of plant species and the average tree dbh were the only habitat variables that had significant correlation with dung beetle species richness (r 2 =0.47; p =0.09); none of the habitat variables had a significant correlation with dung beetle abundance. The results suggest that the cacao systems in Talamanca could harbor comparable dung beetle diversity to the surrounding forests.