Beetles were collected from April 2002 to July 2003 from the following sites in the centre of the state of Veracruz located every 200 m along an altitudinal gradient (1000 - 1400 m asl): three fragments of cloud forest, three shaded coffee plantations, an open canopy coffee plantation, secondary forest, and a pasture. A total of 9,982 specimens were captured, belonging to the families Scarabaeidae and Trogidae, and representing 21 genera and 50 species. The genera Ataenius Harold, Onthophagus Latreille and Aphodius Illiger represented 48% of the species of Scarabaeidae. Species richness was found to decrease with increasing altitude; there were 36 species at 1000 m asl, 27 species between 1200 and 1300 m asl, and 26 species at 1400 m asl. Abundance along the altitudinal gradient follows a pattern of few abundant species and many species with few specimens. Beetle activity is related to precipitation. In the nine communities studied, species richness was observed to increase when precipitation was greater than 100 mm at the beginning of the rainy season. On the landscape scale, there were 44 species during the rainy season, 22 during the windy nortes season, and 24 during the dry season. In terms of trophic guild, 40% of the beetles captured were saprophagous that feed on decomposing organic material from plants and 60% were saprophagous that feed on decomposing organic material from animals (30% necrophagous, 26% coprophagous, 4% telio-necrophagous).
Beetle; trophic guild; saprophagous; necrophagous; coprophagous
