The Nature Conservancy
Programme for Belize
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Programme for Belize |
Entomological Survey of Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, Belize
Peter Kovarik, John Shuey, and Chris Carlton
Introduction
A little over eight years ago, lepidopterist
John Shuey became interested in testing the widely touted concept
that insect communities are useful in evaluating impacts to
ecological integrity in tropical forest communities. At that time
the literature had been advocating insects, especially
butterflies, as appropriate indicators for assessing the impacts
of specific management activities on tropical forests. People
were already using insects as indicators, despite the fact that
this simple premise had yet to be tested. John enlisted
coleopterist Peter Kovarik as a partner in this study. The two
decided that in addition to butterflies, scarabaeine scarabs and
hister beetles would become part of the study. The taxa that were
selected were chosen in part because of their susceptibility to
bait and or passive trapping techniques. In fact the beauty of
this study was that we envisioned relatively little active
collecting. This way we could quasi enjoy ourselves while our
traps were filling with insects!
The site chosen for our study was Rio Bravo Conservation Area
located in Orange Walk Province, Belize. Rio Bravo is a 230,000
acre nature preserve in the northwestern corner of the country
near the corner where Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico meet. Rio
Bravo is a beautiful mosaic of semitropical moist forest,
savanna, 
and wetland habitats with over 230 species of trees, 70
species of mammals, and approximately 400 species of birds. Among
large animals, the area has healthy populations of jaguar, puma,
Baird's tapir, and two species of monkeys. There are also
significant Mayan archeological sites, and the area has a
colorful recent history of mahogany logging, chiclÈ extraction,
and marijuana farming. This preserve is
ministered by Programme
For Belize (PfB), a private
conservation organization that holds Rio Bravo in trust for the
people of Belize. PfB integrates elements of sustainable forestry
and natural product harvesting, ecotourism, and education into a
single comprehensive long-term management plan. For a location
map of Rio Bravo click on the PfB logo above. For additional
information about The Nature Conservancy's role, click on that
logo.
Rio Bravo turned out to be an ideal setting for
our study. In addition to extensive areas of oak-pine savanna,
there were huge expanses of contiguous limestone rainforest
without excessive topographic variability. Within this expanse of
fairly homogenous habitat, there were areas along trails or roads
through the forest that had been fairly recently logged. We
sought to imbed our sample sites within areas that were both
recently disturbed by man and others which had been relatively
untouched for quite some time. Because Rio Bravo is a preserve
and PfB encourages research activities, we felt confidant that
human impact on both the ecosystem and our sampling devices would
be minimal. Thus, it seemed probable that any potential
differences we observed in insect communities between our sample
sites would be primarily due to forest integrity rather than
extraneous factors.
Our core studies were conducted once during the dry season and
twice during the rainy season. They were completed in 1996. Since
neither John nor Pete knew much about scarabaeine scarabs, expert
Bill Warner was coaxed into participating by promising him many
scarabs with no strings attached. In fact Bill eventually joined
us in Rio Bravo in July 1996. We are still awaiting some of our
quantitative insect data, but we have botanical assessments of
each forest tract, and data from the sample events for
butterflies and hister beetles in hand. As soon as the last of
our insect data is cleaned up, we will finish off the ecological
end of this work.
Like many studies, this one began small and focused and
eventually expanded into a full blown entomological survey.
Coleopterist Chris Carlton became the third major player in our
survey. Chris has made several trips to Rio Bravo and done some
intensive leaf litter work and set up many a flight intercept
trap in search of tiny pselaphid beetles. We collected massive
amounts of insects and have spent the last several years
processing our samples and farming specimens out to various
specialists who have generously provided us with identifications.
We have learned, with little surprise that many of the insects
that inhabit the forests and savannas of Rio Bravo are new to
science. Many others are new country records. This is not
surprising either since the entomofauna of Belize is poorly
known. What is perhaps a bit of a surprise are the many unusual
range extensions for some of the described insect species. This
indicates that knowing the insect fauna of Belize will improve
our understanding of the zoogeography of Mexico and Central
America.
The
following checklists and are now available and more will be added
as they mature. Available images may be accessed through links
within the checklists.
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae: subfamily Pselaphinae, by Chris Carlton
Cerambycidae, by Robert Turnbow
Chrysomelidae, by Shawn Clark
Erotylidae, by Paul Skelley
Curculionidae, by Charles O'Brien
Mordellidae, by John Jackman
Anthribidae, by Charles O'Brien
Tenebrionidae, by Charles Triplehorn and Otto Merkl
Elateroidea, by Paul Johnson
Excerpt from John Shuey's Field Notes : a flavor of research in the Neotropics and more information about Rio Bravo
For questions and comments contact Peter Kovarik pkovarik@famu.edu.