Wild Statia: Meet the Beetles

Evolution is a process with no goal, so there's no way to say what creatures have "won" this biological challenge. In one sense, survival is the only standard to measure by, so we – all the species alive today – are all winners. If there were awards for winning at evolution, they would be varies and subjective: humans are intelligent, ants are numerous and corn covers huge swaths of the planet.

The beetles are diverse. Because evolution is the process by which life develops into new and different forms, diversity itself is a reasonable measure for success in the game of evolution. Diversity within a group of animals means that their underlying form has proven suitable to many different lifestyles and ecological niches.

Worldwide, there are about 400,000 known beetle species, with new ones being discovered all the time. About one in four animal species is a beetle, and there are more types of beetles than there are types of plants.

On Statia, there are far fewer species, but in the context of the island's fauna, they are still very diverse. Although no comprehensive census of beetle diversity has been done on the island, the number of species is in the dozens at least; and likely in the hundreds.

How did they become so successful and diverse? So far, we really don’t know. Beetles as a group are about as old as crocodiles and alligators, but those giant reptiles only diversified into 23 species during the same time period. Some scientists believe the key to beetle diversity is that many different groups of beetles independently adapted to eating a wide variety of different plants and the species diversified as they adopted different food sources.

On Statia, beetles play a variety of roles in the local ecosystem. Many are plant eaters, and some are pests that damage crops. Others help the island by eating invasive plants like Coralita. Ladybugs and their larvae are important predators that eat other insects. There are also beetles that specialize in eating wood, fungus, decaying material and carrion. Often, beetles play an important role in breaking down dead plants and animals and returning their nutrients to the ecosystem.

Look anywhere in the Statian landscape or in the web of relationships that connect all living things on the island and you will find beetles. Although they may be easy to overlook, they play important and indispensable roles in the fabric of life. Without them, life on earth would surely be almost unimaginably different.


Contributed by By Mark Yokoyama

The Daily Herald

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