A Bioregionalization of South Africa Based on Beetles (Coleoptera)

Abstract

Beetles represent the most diverse group of living organisms on Earth, yet there has been very little in the way of using beetle distributions in bioregionalization exercises. Here, we combine several small data sets for beetle distributions in South Africa to produce a list of morphospecies and to analyze their presence within twenty geographic units spanning the entire country. We find a diversity of fine scale assemblages in the east, but also a disjunction between the western arid/winter-rainfall and eastern summer-rainfall half of the country, which is in line with several previous studies based on diverse groups of animals and plants. We recommend the use of the increasing citizen science data sets in studying biogeographic patterns in groups such as beetles, which have so far received limited attention.