Tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) of ancient reservoir ecosystems of Sri Lanka

Authors

  • C. Dangalle
  • N. Pallewatta
  • A. Vogler

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2896.2490-8

Abstract

The reservoir ecosystems of Sri Lanka are ancient man-made riparian habitats. Adequate food supply and suitable climatic and soil parameters make these habitats ideal for tiger beetles. Twenty-six reservoirs were investigated for the presence of tiger beetles, and four species were recorded: Calomera angulata (Fabricius, 1798), Myriochila (Monelica) fastidiosa (Dejean, 1825), Cylindera (Oligoma) lacunosa (Putzeys, 1875) and Lophyra (Lophyra) catena (Fabricius, 1775). Calomera angulata is the most common species, occurring in the majority of reservoir habitats. Key environmental factors of climate and soil were examined and linked to habitat preferences of tiger beetle species.

Author Biographies

C. Dangalle

Dr. Chandima Dangalle is a Senior Lecturer in Zoology, attached to the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her expertise lies in the fields of Entomology and Molecular Biology. Her research focuses on collecting baseline data on the distribution and habitat preferences of tiger beetles in Sri Lanka. Further, she studies the evolution and phylogeny of the species using mitochondrial DNA sequences of collected specimens. She conducted her PhD in the Department of Zoology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.

N. Pallewatta

Dr. Nirmalie Pallewatta is a Senior Lecturer and the current head of the department of Zoology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. A zoologist by training, she received her PhD in 1986 from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of London, United Kingdom.

A. Vogler

Dr. Alfried Vogler works on the molecular systematics of Coleoptera. He has a joint position at the Natural History Museum and at Imperial College, London. Together with PhD students and postdocs, he is currently studying basal relationships of Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae. He is also interested in the factors determining the composition of dung beetle communities and the effect of species interactions on the evolution of ecomorphological diversity.

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Published

26-04-2012

Issue

Vol 4, No 4 (2012)

Section

Communications

License

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