caa a22 4500 477091261 CHVBK 20180405111515.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170330e19960701xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF01237722 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF01237722 Competition and habitat selection in Namib desert tenebrionid beetles [Elektronische Daten] [David Ward, Mary Seely] Summary: We tested whether intra- and interspecific competition could affect habitat selection in the two most abundant tenebrionid beetles,Physadesmia globosa andOnymacris rugatipennis, in a dry riverbed in the Namib desert. The spatial distributions of these beetles at the microhabitat scale were negatively correlated. We performed a removal experiment, progressively removing first 25% and then a further 25% of the population of the most abundant species,P. globosa, under the trees where most of the preferred food of both species is concentrated. There was no response ofO. rugatipennis to this removal in the tree habitat. In the open, barely-vegetated habitat where mostO. rugatipennis are found, the number of this species caught in pitfall traps increased following both removals and decreased followingP. globosa replacement under the trees. It appears that intraspecific competition forces someP. globosa to occupy the open habitat. Interspecific competition betweenP. globosa andO. rugatipennis in the open habitat reduces the number ofO. rugatipennis that can co-exist withP. globosa there. Removal ofP. globosa under the trees allows conspecifics in the open habitat to move under the trees, releasingO. rugatipennis in the open habitat from competition. This then results in an increase in the numbers ofO. rugatipennis in the open habitat as a result of immigration from neighbouring areas. We found that differences in foraging efficiency, measured as giving-up times in artificial food patches, create a likely mechanism of co-existence that explains the distinct preferences of these two species for tree and open habitats. Chapman & Hall, 1996 competition nationallicence community structure nationallicence insects nationallicence beetles nationallicence detritivores nationallicence Namib desert nationallicence foraging nationallicence habitat selection nationallicence Ward David Desert Ecological Research Unit of Namibia, Gobabeb, PO Box 1592, 9000, Swakopmund, Namibia aut Seely Mary Desert Ecological Research Unit of Namibia, Gobabeb, PO Box 1592, 9000, Swakopmund, Namibia aut Evolutionary Ecology Kluwer Academic Publishers 10/4(1996-07-01), 341-359 0269-7653 10:4<341 1996 10 10682 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01237722 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01237722 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Ward David Desert Ecological Research Unit of Namibia, Gobabeb, PO Box 1592, 9000, Swakopmund, Namibia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Seely Mary Desert Ecological Research Unit of Namibia, Gobabeb, PO Box 1592, 9000, Swakopmund, Namibia aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Evolutionary Ecology Kluwer Academic Publishers 10/4(1996-07-01), 341-359 0269-7653 10:4<341 1996 10 10682 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer