Species Distribution Modelling of Dung beetle (Genus: Onthophagus) in Sarawak

• Main Author: Nur Aini, Muhammad Amirul Mukminin Khoo
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2022
• Subjects: QL Zoology
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/39714/1/Nur%20Aini%20%28fulltext%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/39714/

Dung beetle is the members of the family Scarabaeidae and subfamily Coprinae. They are also known as the dung chafer or tumblebug. Dung beetles play a major role in an ecosystem such as dung removal and burial, managing decomposed carrion, nutrient recycling, seed dispersing and burial as well as soil aeration. Insects like dung beetles are well-adapted in both terrestrial and freshwater habitats since they have diverse range of feeding behaviour. Despite of their capabilities of surviving in varied environment, they are also sensitive towards changes in surroundings, making them the suitable subject to be one of the bioindicator for environmental disturbances. Eventhough their distribution is quite diverse as most of the species are listed as Least Concern or not listed at all, there are still lacking in local study of dung beetle in Sarawak. Sarawak that is known to be one of the biodiversity hotspots globally is a suitable location to study the distribution of dung beetle, yet the baseline data of this species is scarce. Hence, this study aims to map the distribution of dung beetle (genus: Onthophagus) and identify best environment variable(s) that influenced the distribution of selected dung beetles in Sarawak. A statistical model of species distribution (SDM) was used for data analysis through a program known as Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) which is used to compute the data and generate the distribution map. The dung beetle distributional data were analysed using the sample specimens deposited in UNIMAS Insect Reference Collection as well as the secondary data retrieved from published articles from journals and books. A total of eight prediction models of eight dung beetle (genus: Onthophagus) species were generated. The result indicates that the species are significantly affected by the environmental temperature and monthly precipitation except for O. semiaureus, that is influenced by the temperature seasonality