Community patterns in dytiscids

Abstract

Understanding the relative contributions of biotic and abiotic factors to community structure remains a fundamental aim of community ecology. Dytiscid beetles, which occur in a diverse set of aquatic habitats and display considerable variation in their abundance and composition among locales, would appear to be a model system for investigating such questions. Here, we present an overview of investigations into community structure in dytiscids, which reveals that they are understudied relative to their typically high abundance in ditches to bogs to lakes. We discuss emergent trends in the co-occurrence of dytiscids with regard to ecological and phylogenetic similarity, briefly present some investigations into the influence of dispersal on community structure, and discuss some prospects for future progress in this area.