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Recovery of a flightless beetle after elimination of rodents on Lord Howe Island, Australia

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Abstract

Lord Howe Island is notable for its rich subtropical flora and fauna, however incursions of house mouse (1860s) and black rat (1918) have had catastrophic effects on the biota. These rodents were eliminated in 2019. Repeated surveys of the beetles of Lord Howe Island have provided pre- and post- rodent eradication data. The recovery of a large flightless longhorn beetle, Xylotoles wollastoni, is outlined here.

Implications for insect conservation The recovery of a large flightless endemic beetle provides strong support for the positive impacts of rodent eradication on the Lord Howe fauna, and for similar conservation programmes elsewhere.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the curators of the Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra, the Natural History Museum, London, the Queensland Museum, Brisbane and the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, for access to collections in their care. On Lord Howe we thank the Lord Howe Island Board, including former Environment Officer Hank Bower, for support and permission to collect. We thank the students and volunteers who helped with night searching. We are grateful to Geoff Monteith for supplying notes on the Coleoptera he collected in 1979. The Australian Museum’s surveys of 2000–2001 were funded by the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Australian Museum Trust. Collecting was conducted under NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Scientific License and Lord Howe Island Board Research Permits.

Funding

Chris Reid’s visits to museums in 2006 were funded by The Australian Museum Trust; his visits to Lord Howe 2017–2022 were funded by the The Australian Museum Trust, Lord Howe Island Board or the Friends of Lord Howe Island.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, 1 William St, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia

    Chris Reid

  2. Lord Howe Museum, Middle Beach Road,, Lord Howe Island, NSW, Australia

    Ian Hutton

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  1. Chris Reid
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  2. Ian Hutton
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CR wrote the text; IH checked the text and provided the photographs.

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Correspondence to Chris Reid.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Reid, C., Hutton, I. Recovery of a flightless beetle after elimination of rodents on Lord Howe Island, Australia. J Insect Conserv (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-024-00570-7

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