NEW DEPARTMENTAL RECORDS FOR Digitonthophagus Gazella (COLEOPTERA: SCARABAEIDAE) IN COLOMBIA

Nuevos Registros Departamentales de Digitonthophagus Gazella (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) en Colombia

JORGE ARI NORIEGA¹, M.Sc.; JULIANA MORENO², Environmenta² Engineering; SAMUEL OTAVO³, Forestal Engineering; EDUARDO CASTAÑO⁴, Student, Environmental Engineering.

¹ Water, Health and Environment Research Group, Environmental Engineering program, Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá, Colombia. jnorieg@hotmail.com. Autor para correspondencia.

² Young researchers program "Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda", Colciencias- Environmental Engineering program, Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá, Colombia. moreno.tiusaba@gmail.com

³ Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá, Colombia. geniusforestal@gmail.com

⁴ Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá, Colombia. educaco44@hotmail.com

Presentado 5 de julio de 2011, aceptado 9 de diciembre de 2011, correcciones 16 de enero de 2012.

ABSTRACT

The introduced dung beetle Digitonthophagus Gazella was reported for the Caribbean Region of Colombia in the 9rsquo;0&s. During a survey carried out along the Magdalena river, new records of the presence of this species were found in the departments of Boyacá, Caldas, Cundinamarca, Santander and Tolima for the first time.

Key words: dung beetle, invasive species, dispersion.

RESUMEN

El escarabajo coprófago introducido Digitonthophagus Gazella fue reportado en la región Caribe de Colombia en los años 90. Durante un estudio que se realizó a lo largo del río Magdalena nuevos registros de la presencia de esta especie se reportan para los departamentos de Boyacá, Caldas, Cundinamarca, Santander y Tolima por primera vez.

Palabras clave: escarabajos coprófagos, especies invasoras, dispersión.

INTRODUCTION

The introduced dung beetle Digitonthophagus Gazella (Fabricius, 1787) is an Indo-African species that was intentionally released in Texas in 1970 for the biological control of helminthes and the horn fly (Haematobia irritans), as well as for removing cattle feces (Fincher et al., 1983). From 1972-1982, D. gazella migrated to other states and began to colonize Mexico; between 1992-2002 this species rapidly spread through Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, becoming established in different countries in Central America (Rivera-Cervantes and García-Real, 1991; Kohlmann, 1994; Maes et al., 1997; Montes de Oca and Halffter, 1998).

In 1995, the presence of this species was reported in Colombia for the first time in San Andrés Island (Noriega, 2002). Nine years later, D. gazella was recorded from four Colombian departments in the continental territory: Atlántico, Casanare, Magdalena, and Vichada (Noriega et al., 2006). A year later, its presence was recorded in the departments of Bolívar, Cesar, and Guajira (Noriega et al., 2006; Rivera and Wolff, 2007), and in 2008 in the department of Sucre (Navarro et al., 2009). The presence of D. gazella in the Caribbean region of Colombia anticipated its presence in the valley of the Magdalena river considering the large dispersal capacity, high reproductive rate, and open habitats, particularly in active cattle pastures of this species (Montes de Oca and Halffter, 1998). Herein we report new departmental records for D. gazella for Boyacá, Caldas, Cundinamarca, Santander and Tolima.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

During a survey carried out from 17-21 December 2009, samples of beetles were gathered from along the Magdalena river using 10 pitfall traps (Noriega and Fagua, 2009) per locality, baited with a mix of 50 g of human and pig dung and also through direct collections from feces of cattle and horses. Specimens are deposited in the reference collection of J.A. Noriega (CJAN) and in the Entomological Collection at Museum of Natural History of Los Andes University (E-ANDES) in Bogotá Colombia.

RESULTS

In our survey, Digitonthophagus Gazella was the dominant species in all the studied area, finding records of its presence in the departments of Boyacá, Caldas, Cundinamarca, Santander, and Tolima for the first time (Fig. 1).

DIGITONTHOPHAGUS GAZELLA FABRICIUS

Material examined. COLOMBIA. Boyacá: 3 F, 1 M. Puerto Boyacá, about 5 km from Puerto Serviez. 06°09’54,04’’N 74°34’13,70’’W. 127 m. 17-dec-2009. Noriega, J.A. Caldas: 2 F, 3 M. La Dorada, about 2 km outside de town of La Dorada. 05°26’20,93’’N 74°40’47,95’’O. 195 m. 15-dec-2009. Noriega, J.A. Cundinamarca: 3 F, 4 M. Puerto Salgar, about 5 km from Puerto Libre. 05°42’24,47’’N 74°37’08,96’’O. 154 m. 16-dec-2009. Noriega, J.A. Santander: 3 F, 3 M. Barrancabermeja, outside de town of La Rochela. 06°52’16,61’’N 73°45’42,20’’W. 97 m. 20-dec-2009. Noriega, J.A. 1 F, 4 M. Cimitarra, outside the town of Puerto Araujo, 06°31’28,09’’N 74°04’51,40’’W. 106 m. 19-dec- 2009. Noriega, J.A. 2 F, 5 M. Sabana de Torres, about 10 km from Sabana de Torres. 07° 28’42,31’’N 73°33’16,31’’W. 82 m. 21-dec-2009. Noriega, J.A. Tolima: 4 F, 5 M. Honda, about 5 km outside the town of Honda. 05°14’28,59’’N 74°43’44,17’’O. 203 m. 14dec-2009. Noriega, J.A.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank David Morris for kindly checking the English version. Ricardo Botero-Trujillo made many helpful suggestions which improved the manuscript. To the program of Environmental Engineering of Universidad El Bosque for their support. This study (PCI 2009-76) was supported by the Research program of the Universidad El Bosque, and by the program of young researchers of the Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Colciencias). We also express our appreciation to two anonymous experts for reviews of the manuscript.

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