Urban intensity and flower community structure drive monkey beetle assemblage in Cape Town

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.38201/btha.abc.v53.i1.9

Keywords:

Urban pollinators, Urban biodiversity, Coleoptera, Hopliini, Community assemblage

Abstract

Background: Urban landscapes present an important opportunity for pollinator conservation, but little is known about the status and distribution of pollinator populations in urban habitats in Africa. This represents a major gap in the development of a global understanding of urban pollinators – particularly from the rapidly urbanising context. This study uses a speciose clade of flower-visiting beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) to explore patterns of pollinator distribution in a major metropolitan area in South Africa.

Objectives: We investigated community composition across gradients of urban intensity (defined according to the percentage of soil-sealing within 1 km2 of each sampling location) and socio-economic status to determine pollinator responses to these urban landscape effects.

Methods: A selection of 142 sites were surveyed twice in the austral spring seasons of 2018 and 2019. Data were collected on habitat structure, flower diversity, and pollinator diversity.

Results: The study found that different feeding guilds of monkey beetles favoured different levels of urban intensity and that beetle richness significantly correlated with flower richness. It did not, however, correlate with diversity indicating that abundance is less impacted than the number of species present. Monkey beetles with moderate sensitivity to urban intensity benefitted from the presence of preferred species of flowers.

Conclusion: Overall, the findings demonstrate the importance of plant community assemblage in supporting urban monkey beetles. We recommend landscaping with preferred flower species in urban parks to support urban pollinators.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Aronson, M.F.J., Nilon, C.H., Lepczyk, C.A., Parker, T.S., Warren, P.S., Cilliers, S.S., Goddard, M.A., Hahs, A.K., Herzog, C., Katti, M., La Sorte, F.A., Williams, N.S.G. & Zipperer, W., 2016, ‘Hierarchical filters determine community assembly of urban species pools’, Ecology 97(11), 2952–2963, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1535.

Baldock, K.C.R., Goddard, M.A., Hicks, D.M., Kunin, W.E., Mitschunas, N., Osgathorpe, L.M., Potts, S.G., Robertson, K.M., Scott, A.V., Stone, G.N., Vaughan, I.P. & Memmott, J., 2015, ‘Where is the UK’s pollinator biodiversity? The importance of urban areas for flower-visiting insects’, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282(1803), 20142849, https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2849.

Barraclough, D. & Slotow, R., 2010, ‘The South African keystone pollinator Moegistorhynchus longirostris (Wiedemann, 1819) (Diptera: Nemestrinidae): Notes on biology, biogeography and proboscis length variation’, African Invertebrates 51(2), 397–403, https://doi.org/10.5733/afin.051.0208.

Bernhardt, P., 2000, ‘Convergent evolution and adaptive radiation of beetle-pollinated angiosperms’, Plant Systematics and Evolution 222(1–4), 293–320, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00984108.

Blair, R.B., 1996, ‘Land use and avian species diversity along an urban gradient’, Ecological Applications 6(2), 506–519, https://doi.org/10.2307/2269387.

Bonferroni, C.E., 1936, ‘Teoria statistica delle classi e calcolo delle probabilità’, Pubblicazioni del R Istituto Superiore di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali di Firenze 8, https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412961288.n455.

Bray, J.R. & Curtis, J.T., 1957, ‘An ordination of the upland forest communities of southern Wisconsin’, Ecological Monographs 27(4), 325–349, https://doi.org/10.2307/1942268.

Brom, P., Underhill, L.G. & Winter, K., 2022, ‘A review of the opportunities to support pollinator populations in South African cities’, PeerJ 10, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12788.

Cane, J.H., Minckley, R.L., Kervin, L.J., Roulston, T.H. & Williams, N.M., 2006, ‘Complex responses within a desert bee guild (Hymenoptera: Apiformes) to urban habitat fragmentation’, Ecological Applications 16(2), 632–644, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40061683.

Cilliers, S.S. & Siebert, S.J., 2012, ‘Urban ecology in Cape Town: South African comparisons and reflections’, Ecology and Society 17(3), 33, https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05146-170333.

City of Cape Town, 2017, Municipal Planning By-law.

Clarke, K.R. & Gorley, R.N., 2006, Primer v6: User Manual/Tutorial, Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

Colville, J.F., Picker, M.D. & Cowling, R.M., 2002, ‘Species turnover of monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) along environmental and disturbance gradients in the Namaqualand region of the succulent Karoo, South Africa’, Biodiversity and Conservation 11(2), 243–264, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014520226989.

Colville, J.F., Picker, M.D. & Cowling, R.M., 2018, ‘Feeding ecology and sexual dimorphism in a speciose flower beetle clade (Hopliini: Scarabaeidae)’, PeerJ 6, e4632, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4632.

Cranmer, L., McCollin, D. & Ollerton, J., 2012, ‘Landscape structure influences pollinator movements and directly affects plant reproductive success’, Oikos 121(4), 562–568, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2011.19704.x.

Dafni, A., Bernhardt, P., Shmida, A., Ivri, Y., Greenbaum, S., O’Toole, C.H. & Losito, L., 1990, ‘Red bowl-shaped flowers: convergence for beetle pollination in the Mediterranean region’, Israel Journal of Botany, 39(1–2), 81–92, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/0021213X.1990.10677134.

Dubois, J. & Cheptou, P.O., 2017, ‘Effects of fragmentation on plant adaptation to urban environments’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372, 20160038, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0038.

Everitt, B.S., Landau, S., Leese, M. & Stahl, D., 2011, Cluster Analysis, 5th Edition, Everitt-Wiley Online Library, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9780470977811.

Fisher, R.A., 1922, ‘On the interpretation of X^2 from contingency tables, and the calculation of P’, Royal Statistical Society 85(1), 87–94, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2340521.

Garbuzov, M., Alton, K. & Ratnieks, F.L.W., 2017, ‘Most ornamental plants on sale in garden centres are unattractive to flower-visiting insects’, PeerJ 5(3), e3066, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3066.

Garbuzov, M. & Ratnieks, F.L.W., 2014, ‘Quantifying variation among garden plants in attractiveness to bees and other flower-visiting insects’, Functional Ecology 28(2), 364–374, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12178.

Garbuzov, M. & Ratnieks, F.L.W., 2015, ‘Using the British national collection of asters to compare the attractiveness of 228 varieties to flower-visiting insects’, Environmental Entomology 44(3), 638–646, https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvv037.

Glasser, G.J. & Winter, R.F., 1961, ‘Critical values of coefficient of rank correlation for testing the hypothesis of independence’, Biometrika 48(3), 444–448.

Glaum, P., Simao, M.-C., Vaidya, C., Fitch, G. & Iulinao, B., 2017, ‘Big city Bombus: using natural history and land-use history to find significant environmental drivers in bumble-bee declines in urban development’, Royal Society Open Science 4(5), 170156, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170156.

Goldblatt, P. & Manning, J.C., 2006, ‘Radiation of pollination systems in the Iridaceae of sub-Saharan Africa’, Annals of Botany 97(3), 317–344, https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcj040.

Goldblatt, P. & Manning, J.C., 2011, ‘Hopliine beetles (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Hopliini), specialized pollinators of the Southern Africa Flora’, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 28(4), 238–259, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8748.2011.01752.x.

Goldblatt, P., Bernhardt, P. & Manning, J.C., 2013, ‘Pollination of petaloid geophytes by monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Hopliini) in Southern Africa’, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 85(2), 215–230.

Gómez-Baggethun, E., Gren, Å., Barton, D.N., Langemeyer, J., Mcphearson, T., Farrell, P.O., Andersson, E., Hamstead, Z. & Kremer, P., 2013, ‘Urban Ecosystem Services’, in Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities (pp. 175–251), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7088-1.

Hall, D.M., Camilo, G.R., Tonietto, R.K., Ollerton, J., Ahrné, K., Arduser, M., Ascher, J.S., Baldock, K.C.R., Fowler, R., Frankie, G., Goulson, D., Gunnarsson, B., Hanley, M.E., Jackson, J.I., Langellotto, G., Lowenstein, D., Minor, E.S., Philpott, S.M., Potts, S.G., … & Threlfall, C.G., 2017, ‘The city as a refuge for insect pollinators’, Conservation Biology 31(1), 24–29, https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12840.

Hill, M.O., 1973, ‘Diversity and evenness: a unifying notation and its consequences’, Ecology 54(2), 427–432, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1934352.

Hirzel, A.H. & Le Lay, G., 2008, ‘Habitat suitability modelling and niche theory’, Journal of Applied Ecology 45(5), 1372–1381, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01524.x.

Johnson, S.D. & Steiner, K.E., 2003, ‘Specialized pollination systems in southern Africa’, South African Journal of Science 99(August), 345–348.

Jongman, R.H.G., Bunce, R.G.H., Metzger, M.J., Mücher, C.A., Howard, D.C. & Mateus, V. L., 2006, ‘Objectives and applications of a statistical environmental stratification of Europe’, Landscape Ecology 21(3 SPEC. ISS.), 409–419, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-005-6428-0.

Karolyi, F., Hansal, T., Krenn, H.W. & Colville, J.F., 2016, ‘Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure’, PeerJ 2016(1), e1597, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1597.

Kruger, M., Viljoen, A. & Saayman, M., 2015, ‘Why pay to view wildflowers in South Africa?’, Tourism Analysis 20(1), 81–97, https://doi.org/10.3727/108354215X14205687167707.

Kruskal, J.B., 1964, ‘Nonmetric multidimensional scaling: a numerical method’, Psychometrika 29(2), 115–129, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289694.

Kruskal, W.H. & Wallis, W.A., 1952, ‘Use of ranks in one-criterion variance analysis’, Journal of the American Statistical Association 47(260), 583–621, https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1952.10483441.

Lepczyk, C.A., Aronson, M.F.J., Evans, K.L., Goddard, M.A., Lerman, S.B. & MacIvor, J.S., 2017, ‘Biodiversity in the city: fundamental questions for understanding the ecology of urban green spaces for biodiversity conservation’, BioScience 67(9), 799–807, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix079.

Leveau, L.M., 2013, ‘Bird traits in urban–rural gradients: how many functional groups are there?’, Journal of Ornithology 154(3), 655–662, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-012-0928-x.

Lizée, M.H., Mauffrey, J.F., Tatoni, T. & Deschamps-Cottin, M., 2011, ‘Monitoring urban environments on the basis of biological traits’, Ecological Indicators 11(2), 353–361, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2010.06.003.

Lowenstein, D.M., Matteson, K.C. & Minor, E.S., 2019, ‘Evaluating the dependence of urban pollinators on ornamental, non-native and “weedy” floral resources’, Urban Ecosystems 22(2), 293–302, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0817-z.

Lubbe, C.S., Siebert, S.J. & Cilliers, S.S., 2010, ‘Political legacy of South Africa affects the plant diversity patterns of urban domestic gardens along a socio-economic gradient’, Scientific Research and Essays 5(19), 2900–2910, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5897/SRE.9000741.

Martins, K.T., Gonzalez, A. & Lechowicz, M.J., 2017, ‘Patterns of pollinator turnover and increasing diversity associated with urban habitats’, Urban Ecosystems 20(6), 1359–1371, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-017-0688-8.

Mayer, C. & Pufal, G., 2007, ‘Investigation of the breeding systems of four Aizoaceae species in Namaqualand, South Africa’, South African Journal of Botany 73(4), 657–660, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2007.06.001.

Mayer, C., Soka, G. & Picker, M., 2006, ‘The importance of monkey beetle (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) pollination for Aizoaceae and Asteraceae in grazed and ungrazed areas at Paulshoek, Succulent Karoo, South Africa’, Journal of Insect Conservation 10(4), 323–333, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-006-9006-0.

McDonnell, M.J. & Hahs, A.K., 2008, ‘The use of gradient analysis studies in advancing our understanding of the ecology of urbanizing landscapes: current status and future directions’, Landscape Ecology 23(10), 1143–1155, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-008-9253-4.

Merckx, T., Kaiser, A. & Van Dyck, H., 2018, ‘Increased body size along urbanization gradients at both community and intraspecific level in macro-moths’, Global Change Biology 24(8), 3837–3848, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14151.

Michołap, P., Kelm, M. & Sikora, A., 2018, ‘Potential of an algorithm in assessing attractiveness of flowering plants to bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and their subsequent protection as pollinators’, Journal of Entomological Science 53(2), 251–267, https://doi.org/10.18474/JES17-68.1.

Mittermeier, R., Gil, P.R., Mittermeier, C.G. & Myers, N., 1999, Hotspots: Earth’s biologically richest and most endangered terrestrial ecoregions, CEMEX, https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/19382700446.

Mucina, L. & Rutherford, M. (eds), 2006, ‘The vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland’, Strelitzia 19, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria.

Oksanen, A.J., Blanchet, F.G., Friendly, M., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., Mcglinn, D., Minchin, P.R., Hara, R.B.O., Simpson, G.L., Solymos, P., Stevens, M.H.H. & Szoecs, E., 2020, Package ‘Vegan’ – community ecology package version 2.5-7.

Ossola, A. & Hopton, M.E., 2018, ‘Measuring urban tree loss dynamics across residential landscapes’, Science of the Total Environment 612, 940–949, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.08.103.

Pauw, A. & Louw, K., 2012, ‘Urbanization drives a reduction in functional diversity in a guild of nectar-feeding birds’, Ecology and Society 17(2), Art. 27, https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-04758-170227.

Picker, M.D. & Midgley, J., 1996, ‘Pollination by monkey beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): flower and colour preferences’, African Entomology 4(1), 7–14.

Rebelo, A.G., Holmes, P.M., Dorse, C. & Wood, J., 2011, ‘Impacts of urbanization in a biodiversity hotspot: conservation challenges in metropolitan Cape Town’, South African Journal of Botany 77(1), 20–35, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2010.04.006.

Seress, G., Lipovits, Á., Bókony, V. & Czúni, L., 2014, ‘Quantifying the urban gradient: a practical method for broad measurements’, Landscape and Urban Planning 131, 42–50, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.07.010.

Shrestha, M., Garcia, J.E., Chua, J.H.J., Howard, S.R., Tscheulin, T., Dorin, A., Nielsen, A. & Dyer, A.G., 2019, ‘Fluorescent pan traps affect the capture rate of insect orders in different ways’, Insects 10(2), 40, https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10020040.

Shwartz, A., Turbé, A., Simon, L. & Julliard, R., 2014, ‘Enhancing urban biodiversity and its influence on city-dwellers: an experiment’, Biological Conservation 171, 82–90, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.01.009.

Simao, M.C.M., Matthijs, J. & Perfecto, I., 2018, ‘Experimental small-scale flower patches increase species density but not abundance of small urban bees’, Journal of Applied Ecology 55(4), 1759–1768, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13085.

Statistics South Africa, 2011, Census 2011 Community Profiles Dataset, Datafirst.

Steiner, K.E., 1998, ‘Beetle pollination of peacock moraeas (Iridaceae) in South Africa’, Plant Systematics and Evolution 209(1–2), 47–65, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00991523.

Stenchly, K., Lippmann, S., Waongo, A., Nyarko, G. & Buerkert, A., 2017, ‘Weed species structural and functional composition of okra fields and field periphery under different management intensities along the rural-urban gradient of two West African cities’, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 237, 213–223, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.12.028.

Theodorou, P., Albig, K., Radzevičiute, R., Settele, J., Schweiger, O., Murray, T.E. & Paxton, R.J., 2017, ‘The structure of flower visitor networks in relation to pollination across an agricultural to urban gradient’, Functional Ecology 31(4), 838–847, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12803.

Theodorou, P., Herbst, S.-C., Kahnt, B., Landaverde-González, P., Baltz, L.M., Osterman, J. & Paxton, R.J., 2020a, ‘Urban fragmentation leads to lower floral diversity, with knock-on impacts on bee biodiversity’, Scientific Reports 10(1), 21756, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78736-x.

Theodorou, P., Radzevičiute, R., Lentendu, G., Kahnt, B., Husemann, M., Bleidorn, C., Settele, J., Schweiger, O., Grosse, I., Wubet, T., Murray, T.E. & Paxton, R.J., 2020b, ‘Urban areas as hotspots for bees and pollination but not a panacea for all insects’, Nature Communications 11(1), 576, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14496-6.

Turok, I., 2011, ‘Deconstructing density: strategic dilemmas confronting the post-apartheid city’, Cities 28(5), 470–477, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2010.10.003.

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2018, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition, https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications.

Venter, Z.S., Shackleton, C.M., Van Staden, F., Selomane, O. & Masterson, V.A., 2020, ‘Green Apartheid: urban green infrastructure remains unequally distributed across income and race geographies in South Africa’, Landscape and Urban Planning 203, 103889, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103889.

Vrdoljak, S.M. & Samways, M.J., 2012, ‘Optimising coloured pan traps to survey flower visiting insects’, Journal of Insect Conservation 16(3), 345–354, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-011-9420-9.

Wenzel, A., Grass, I., Belavadi, V.V. & Tscharntke, T., 2020, ‘How urbanization is driving pollinator diversity and pollination – a systematic review’, Biological Conservation 241, 108321, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108321.

Western Cape Government, 2020, Socio-economic profile: City of Cape Town Municipality, web-document: https://www.westerncape.gov.za/provincial-treasury/socio-economic-profiles-2020.

Wilkinson, P., 2000, ‘City profile: Cape Town’, Cities 17(3), 195–205, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-2751(99)00059-1.

World Bank, 2014, ‘Poverty and inequality platform: Gini index, South Africa, web-database: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI?locations=ZA.

Wu, J., Xiang, W.-N. & Zhao, J., 2014, ‘Urban ecology in China: historical developments and future directions’, Landscape and Urban Planning 125, 222–233.

Downloads

Published

2023-07-11

How to Cite

Brom, P., Colville, J., Underhill, L., & Winter, K. (2023). Urban intensity and flower community structure drive monkey beetle assemblage in Cape Town. Bothalia, African Biodiversity & Conservation, 53(1). https://doi.org/10.38201/btha.abc.v53.i1.9

Issue

Section

Original research, Reviews, Strategies, Case studies