TY - JOUR

T1 - Amplicon metagenomics of dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) as a proxy for lemur (Primates, Lemuroidea) studies in Madagascar

AU - Frolov, Andrey V.

AU - Akhmetova, Lilia A.

AU - Вишневская, Мария Сергеевна

AU - Кирюхин, Богдан

AU - Montreuil, Olivier

AU - Lopes, Fernando

AU - Tarasov, Sergei

N1 - Andrey V. Frolov, Lilia A. Akhmetova, Maria S. Vishnevskaya, Bogdan A. Kiriukhin, Olivier Montreuil, Fernando Lopes, Sergei I. Tarasov.

PY - 2023/9/28

Y1 - 2023/9/28

N2 - Dung beetles (Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) are among the most cost-effective and informative biodiversity indicator groups, conveying rich information about the status of habitats and faunas of an area. Yet their use for monitoring the mammal species, that are the main providers of the food for the dung beetles, has only recently been recognized. In the present work, we studied the diet of four endemic Madagascan dung beetles ( Helictopleurusfissicollis (Fairmaire), H.giganteus (Harold), Nanosagaboides (Boucomont), and Epilissussplendidus Fairmaire) using high-throughput sequencing and amplicon metagenomics. For all beetle species, the ⅔-¾ of reads belonged to humans, suggesting that human feces are the main source of food for the beetles in the examined areas. The second most abundant were the reads of the cattle ( Bostaurus Linnaeus). We also found lower but significant number of reads of six lemur species belonging to three genera. Our sampling localities agree well with the known ranges of these lemur species. The amplicon metagenomics method proved a promising tool for the lemur inventories in Madagascar.

AB - Dung beetles (Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) are among the most cost-effective and informative biodiversity indicator groups, conveying rich information about the status of habitats and faunas of an area. Yet their use for monitoring the mammal species, that are the main providers of the food for the dung beetles, has only recently been recognized. In the present work, we studied the diet of four endemic Madagascan dung beetles ( Helictopleurusfissicollis (Fairmaire), H.giganteus (Harold), Nanosagaboides (Boucomont), and Epilissussplendidus Fairmaire) using high-throughput sequencing and amplicon metagenomics. For all beetle species, the ⅔-¾ of reads belonged to humans, suggesting that human feces are the main source of food for the beetles in the examined areas. The second most abundant were the reads of the cattle ( Bostaurus Linnaeus). We also found lower but significant number of reads of six lemur species belonging to three genera. Our sampling localities agree well with the known ranges of these lemur species. The amplicon metagenomics method proved a promising tool for the lemur inventories in Madagascar.

KW - Beetles

KW - Madagascar

KW - coprophagy

KW - gut content analysis

KW - next-generation sequencing

KW - scarabaeines

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/953ed3ce-58fd-33ea-b594-3712661c7244/

U2 - 10.3897/zookeys.1181.107496

DO - 10.3897/zookeys.1181.107496

M3 - Article

C2 - 37810459

VL - 1181

SP - 29

EP - 39

JO - ZooKeys

JF - ZooKeys

SN - 1313-2989

ER -