2007/03/06 by Ilkka Hanski, Helena Koivulehto, A. Cameron +1 · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Plant and animal studies #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Studies
paper · doi:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0043
openalex publication_date 2007/03/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/08
Madagascar has lost about half of its forest cover since 1953 with much regional variation, for instance most of the coastal lowland forests have been cleared. We sampled the endemic forest-dwelling Helictopleurini dung beetles across Madagascar during 2002-2006. Our samples include 29 of the 51 previously known species for which locality information is available. The most significant factor explaining apparent extinctions (species not collected by us) is forest loss within the historical range of the focal species, suggesting that deforestation has already caused the extinction, or effective extinction, of a large number of insect species with small geographical ranges, typical for many endemic taxa in Madagascar. Currently, roughly 10% of the original forest cover remains. Species-area considerations suggest that this will allow roughly half of the species to persist. Our results are consistent with this prediction.