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Demographic parameters of sexes in an elusive insect: implications for monitoring methods

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Population Ecology

Abstract

Estimating demographic parameters in rare species is challenging because of the low number of individuals and their cryptic behaviour. One way to address this challenge is to gather data from several regions or years through mark-release-recapture (MRR) and radio-tracking monitoring. However, the comparison of demographic estimates obtained using these methods has rarely been investigated. Using 5 years of intensive MRR and radio-tracking surveys of an elusive and endangered saproxylic insect, the hermit beetle (Osmoderma eremita), in two regions of France, we aimed to estimate population size at the adult stage for each sex separately and to assess differences in demographic parameter estimates between survey methods. We found that males were approximately three times more likely to be recaptured than females. Taking this into account, we determined that the sex ratio was male-biased in almost all populations, except in Malus trees, where it was female-biased. Temporal fluctuations of sex ratios were also detected in one region. The radio-tracking transmitter (450 mg) allowed only the largest individuals (>2 g) to be targeted. However, we found that, among non-equipped individuals, the larger males survived better than the smaller males. We also confirmed that transmitter-equipped individuals survived approximately 25 % better than non-equipped individuals. Extrapolating the estimates from radio-tracking surveys to the population scale may result in overly optimistic population projections. Our results revealed large temporal and spatial variations in population size and sex ratios. This knowledge is crucial for predicting the persistence of small populations in fragmented landscapes. This study also questioned the representativeness of radio-tracking surveys for insect species in estimating demographic parameters at the population scale.

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Acknowledgments

We owe special thanks to Olivier Martin (ISATIS Environnement), Cédric Doaré, Coralie Le Chatreux, Cécile Grimaldi, Nicolas Lebreton (OGE) for surveying beetles, to Christian Kampichler for English editing and to Valérie Briand for bibliography formatting. We thank the General Council of the Orne Department and the Company Alis for their authorization to use the database carried out by the research consultancy OGE. This work was supported by the prefectural office of the Sarthe department, DIREN Pays de la Loire, General Council of the Sarthe department and Cofiroute. We are very grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR EcoBio 6553 CNRS/Université de Rennes 1, Équipe PaysaClim, Station Biologique, 35380, Paimpont, France

    Pascaline Juliette Le Gouar & Philippe Vernon

  2. 31 rue des chesnots, 56430, Concoret, France

    Glenn François Dubois

  3. OGE-Office de Génie Écologique, 5 Bd de Créteil, 94100, Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France

    Vincent Vignon

  4. Université de Toulouse, École d’Ingénieurs de Purpan, INPT, UMR Dynafor 1201, 75 Voie du Toec, BP 57611, 31 076, Toulouse Cedex 3, France

    Hervé Brustel

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  1. Pascaline Juliette Le Gouar
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  2. Glenn François Dubois
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  3. Vincent Vignon
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  4. Hervé Brustel
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  5. Philippe Vernon
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Correspondence to Pascaline Juliette Le Gouar.

Additional information

G. F. Dubois and P. J. Le Gouar equally contributed to the manuscript.

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Le Gouar, P.J., Dubois, G.F., Vignon, V. et al. Demographic parameters of sexes in an elusive insect: implications for monitoring methods. Popul Ecol 57, 227–236 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-014-0453-2

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