Scholarly record
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION MODELING OF THANATOPHILUS SINUATUS (COLEOPTERA: SILPHIDAE) IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Abstract
Carrion beetles of genus Thantophilus are an important part of the North Hemisphere ecosystems. They provide valuable ecosystem services by promoting nutrient cycling and biological control of pests. They also regularly occurs on human remains and some of them are established forensic bio-indicators as they could provide valuable information regarding time of death and possible body manipulation. Thanatophilus sinuatus is one of the most common species of necrophagous beetles in the Czech Republic and our goal was to model the possible distribution using advanced statistical methods as a cost effective tool for mapping its presence across the whole country. The study was based on random observations of the species in the Czech Republic and other Central European countries (e.g. Germany, Slovakia, Austria and Poland). The data of occurrence were coupled with local environmental factors (e.g. temperature, precipitation, seasonality, etc.). These data were evaluated by machine learning algorithm MaxEnt and extrapolated to provide the probability of occurrence across the Czech Republic. Based on this extrapolation we show in the article where we could expect T. sinuatus to occur and we further discuss, which environmental factors are correlated with the distribution of this specie.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References15
Jakubec, P., Růžička, J.: Distribution of open landscape carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) in selected lowlands of the Czech Republic. Klapalekiana, 48, 2012, p. 169–189.
Šustek, Z.: Keys to identification of insects 2: Carrion beetles of Czechoslovakia (Coleoptera: Silphidae). Zprávy Československé Společnosti Entomol. při ČSAV, 2, 1981, p. 1–47.
Anderson, R.S., Peck, S.B.: The Insects and Arachnids of Canada, Part 13: The carrion beetles of Canada and Alaska (Coleoptera: Silphidae and Agyrtidae). Ottawa: Agriculture Canada, 1985.
Joseph, I. et al.: The use of insects in forensic investigations: An overview on the scope of forensic entomology. J. Forensic Dent. Sci., 3 (2), 2011, p. 89–91.
Ridgeway, J.A. et al.: Advantages of using development models of the carrion beetles Thanatophilus micans (Fabricius) and T. mutilatus (Castelneau) (Coleoptera: Silphidae) for estimating minimum post mortem intervals, verified with case data. Int. J. Legal Med., 128 (1), 2014, p. 207–220.
Kočárek, P.: Diurnal activity rhythms and niche differentiation in a carrion beetle assemblage (Coleoptera: Silphidae) in Opava, the Czech Republic. Biol. Rhythm Res., 32 (4), 2001, p. 431–438.
Růžička, J.: Seasonal activity and habitat associations of Silphidae and Leiodidae: Cholevinae (Coleoptera) in central Bohemia. Acta Soc. Zool. Bohemoslovicae, 58, 1994, p. 67–78.
Petruška, F.: Příspěvek k poznání pohyblivosti několika druhů brouků nalétajících na mršiny (Col. Silphidae et Histeridae) (Beitrag zur Bewegungsaktivität einiger Aaskäfer-Arten (Col. Silphidae et Histeridae). Acta Univ. Palacki. Olomuc. Fac. Rerum Nat., 16, 1968, p. 159–187.
Hammond, K.R. et al.: A presence-only model of suitable roosting habitat for the endangered indiana bat in the southern appalachians. PLoS One, 11 (4), 2016.
Phillips, S.J. et al.: A maximum entropy approach to species distribution modeling. In: Twenty-first international conference on Machine learning - ICML ’04. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press, 2004, p. 83.
Portal.nature.cz: Thanatophilus sinuatus (Fabricius, 1775). 2017.
Jakubec, P., Ruzicka, J.: Is the type of soil an important factor determining the local abundance of carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae)? Eur. J. Entomol., 112 (4), 2015, p. 1–8.
Elith, J. et al.: A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for ecologists. Divers. Distrib., 17 (1), 2011, p. 43–57.
R Core Team: R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing [program]. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2017, p. https://www.r-project.org/.
Hijmans, R.J. et al.: Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. Int. J. Climatol., 25 (15), 2005, p. 1965–1978.
Citing literature
Number of times cited according to Crossref: 1
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
