thesis abstract: Understanding the evolutionary radiation of the mega-diverse Monkey Beetle fauna (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) of South Africa

news and update elling. Diversity and Distributions, 15, 59-69. Matthews, W.J. (1998). Patterns in Freshwater Fish Ecology. Chapman and Hall, London. McPherson, J.M. & Jetz, W. (2007) Effects of species' ecology on the accuracy of distribution models. Ecography, 30, 135-151. Mohseni, O. , Stefan, H.G. & Eaton, J.G. (2003) Global warming and potential changes in fish habitat in US streams. Climatic Change, 59, 389-409. Pearson, R.G. & Dawson, T.P. (2003) Predicting the im- pacts of climate change on the distribution of species: are bioclimate envelope models useful? Global Ecology and Biogeography, 12, 361-371. Thuiller, W. (2003) BIOMOD - optimizing predictions of species distributions and projecting potential future shifts under global change. Global Change Biology, 9, 1353-1362. ISSN 1948-6596 Thuiller, W. (2004) Patterns and uncertainties of spe- cies' range shifts under climate change. Global Change Biology, 10, 2020-2027. Walther, G.R. , Post, E. , Convey, P., Menzel, A. , Parme- san, C. , Beebee, T.J.C. , Fromentin, J.M. , Hoegh- Guldberg, O. & Bairlein, F. (2002) Ecological re- sponses to recent climate change. Nature, 416, Edited by Nuria Roura-Pascual thesis abstract Understanding the evolutionary radiation of the mega-diverse Monkey Beetle fauna (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) of South Africa Jonathan F. Colville PhD, Zoology Department, University Of Cape Town, South Africa Current address: Applied Biodiversity Research, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X7 Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa E-mail: J.Colville@sanbi.org. za; http://www.sanbi.org/ South Africa is the global centre of diversification for monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini). 69 % of the world fauna occur here, with 98% of the 1040 South African species and 80% of the South African genera being national endemics. This the- sis was the first analysis of the regional distribu- tion patterns, and the processes underlying the generation of the mega-diverse monkey beetle fauna of South Africa. Specifically, the aims of the thesis were to: 1. Identify hotspots of richness and endemism, and to explore the relationship between area and richness. 2. Compare centres of endemism of monkey bee- tles with those of other faunal and floral taxa, and to investigate patterns of biogeographic congruence. 3. Explore the role of local environmental factors (rainfall, temperature, habitat heterogeneity, host plant diversity) as explanatory variables of regional richness patterns of monkey beetles. 4. Model spatial turnover (beta diversity) in bee- tle community composition as a function of environmental (rainfall, temperature, altitude, soil fertility) and plant (host species, vegetation types, and bioregions) variables. 5. Describe and quantify patterns of sexual dimor- phism and putative sexually selected traits and investigate the role of sexual selection in the generation of species richness. Methodological procedures followed cur- rent and newly-developed analytical techniques used in the fields of biogeography, spatial ecology, and evolutionary biology. A key first methodologi- cal step was the compilation of a geo-referenced presence-only dataset from field observations, museum collections, and taxonomic revisions. This comprised 6959 unique point locality records which were analysed within a geographical infor- mation system (GIS). This allowed portraying of the spatial variation in richness and endemism across local and regional habitats. © 2009 the authors; journal compilation © 2009 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 1.2, 2009