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Spatiotemporal variation in Lepidochelys olivacea sea turtle nests and their influence on the abundance and reproductive phenology of the sapro-necrophagous beetle Omorgus suberosus

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Abstract

The olive ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz, 1829), nests en masse in the protected natural area of La Escobilla, Mexico. On this beach, Omorgus suberosus (Fabricius, 1775), a sapro-necrophagous beetle, feeds on the sea turtles’ decomposing and live eggs and is considered to be a threat for the conservation of L. olivacea. However, the abundance and reproductive phenology of O. suberosus in relation to the spatial and temporal availability of this food resource are unknown. We tested two alternative hypotheses during the 2013–2014 nesting season of L. olivacea: (i) abundance and female reproductive phenology of beetles are determined by the spatial and temporal availability of decomposing eggs that accumulate during the turtle nesting season, and (ii) abundance and female reproductive phenology of beetles are related to the increase in the concentration of seasonal and/or new turtle nests. Twenty-four plots (1 m2) were sampled in three areas with different turtle nesting densities. Spatially, beetle abundance was greater where turtle nest density was high and decomposed eggs were abundant. At the temporal level, old nests (> 45 days after egg deposition) were abundant and the presence of seasonal and new nests (~ 45 or fewer days after egg deposition) appeared to trigger sexual maturation in female beetles. Immature female beetles were more abundant throughout the turtles’ nesting season, and mature females were only abundant during the turtle arribadas with the highest number of seasonal nests. We conclude that abundance and female reproductive phenology of O. suberosus females are influenced by the quantity and quality of the resource. These findings are useful to understand the interaction of L. olivacea with other species and to strengthen the conservation plans of this turtle species.

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Data availability

Supplementary material is available in Online resource 1. The raw data used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Manuel Rodríguez Gómez, Director of the Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga, for his support when we were carrying out the fieldwork and for providing access to the arribada monitoring data. We are grateful to Cuauhtemoc Peñaflores Salazar for his support with field logistics and to Erika Peralta Buendía and María Teresa Luna Medina for their support with the fieldwork. The students of the Escobilla music school kindly assisted in checking the sea turtle nests and collecting beetles, and Israel Huesca provided valuable advice on some of the statistical analyses.

Funding

The Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) provided a postgraduate scholarship to the third author MSC (No. 280599).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Av. Luis Castelazo Ayala s/n Col. Industrial Ánimas, C.P., 91190, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Martha L. Baena

  2. Red de Ecoetología, Instituto de Ecología, A. C., carretera antigua a Coatepec 351, Col. El Haya, 91073, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Carmen Huerta Crespo, Marcela Sánchez Carrillo & Federico Escobar

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  1. Martha L. Baena
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  2. Carmen Huerta Crespo
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  3. Marcela Sánchez Carrillo
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  4. Federico Escobar
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Contributions

MSC, CHC, and FE conceived and designed the study. MSC performed the field study. MSC and CHC performed the dissections in the laboratory. MLB and FE analyzed the data and visualized the results. MLB wrote the manuscript, with contributions from all of the authors.

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Correspondence to Federico Escobar.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. The nests and turtle eggs were handled according to the recommendations of the officials of the Mexican Turtle Center.

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Communicated by: Oliver Hawlitschek

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Baena, M.L., Crespo, C.H., Carrillo, M.S. et al. Spatiotemporal variation in Lepidochelys olivacea sea turtle nests and their influence on the abundance and reproductive phenology of the sapro-necrophagous beetle Omorgus suberosus. Sci Nat 107, 47 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01704-y

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