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Alexandre Loureiro and Alex Smith walking up Volcan Cacao in Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica while collecting diverse staphylinid beetles across an elevation gradient.  
Alexandre Loureiro and Alex Smith walking up Volcan Cacao in Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica while collecting diverse staphylinid beetles across an elevation gradient.
Journal Highlights

Do beetle families show a common pattern of taxon or phylogenetic diversity across elevation? 

First published: 16 April 2025

A recent review article by Alexandre M. M. C. Loureiro and M. Alex Smith in Ecological Entomology searched for evidence of a common pattern of taxon or phylogenetic diversity across elevation for beetle (Coleoptera) families. 

Mountains are among the most diverse terrestrial habitats on Earth, and understanding how montane species are distributed is a first step towards predicting how these taxa will respond to changing thermal environmental conditions. While most reported patterns of diversity and elevation are negative or hump-shaped relationships, syntheses of these patterns are mostly derived from vertebrates. 

Figure caption for IMG_8173: Alex Smith near the top of Volcan Cacao in Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica while collecting diverse staphylinid beetles across an elevation gradient. 

“It’s a mistake to assume that the little things in the leaf litter follow the patterns we’ve learned about from larger, well-studied taxa.

For most of life’s diversity, we haven’t yet begun to ask where and how they’re doing what they’re doing. We need to – before they’re gone.” 

– Alex Smith

In their article, the authors explored over 270 studies from the literature (more than a third of which they could reanalyse their data) to test whether beetles (Coleoptera) displayed a uniform pattern predicted by these syntheses at the family level. 

The article found that Carabidae and Scarabaeidae, two diverse and heavily studied families, showed different diversity and elevation patterns to one another (scarabs decreasing with elevation across studies and carabids not showing any consistent pattern). The results from the authors’ search of the literature revealed a known bias in the study of biodiversity across the globe, namely that North temperate studies were far more numerous than tropical studies – the most biodiverse area in the world is relatively understudied. Their results also revealed a different expression of this problem of allocation of study effort relative to diversity – the Staphylinidae and Curculionidae, the two most species-rich families of beetle, are severely understudied relative to the less diverse Carabidae and Scarabaeidae in terms of diversity and elevation.  

Figure caption for la_cima_arrival: Alexandre Loureiro having just arrived to collect diverse staphylinid beetles at the highest collection site near the top of Volcan Cacao in Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. 

“It is exciting to have both a formal acknowledgement of the knowledge gaps for beetle diversity and elevation, and insights into how diversity and elevation patterns are not necessarily as straight forward as we may think.

“Boots on the ground” science is still as needed today as it has ever been!”

– Alexandre Loureiro

If the most diverse families of one of the most diverse animal groups on Earth are understudied relative to other less diverse taxa, statements about cross-taxon patterns on montane environments must avoid the impression that all taxa are expected to show those same trends. Quantifying these gaps helps us to identify opportunities and needs. 

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