Recent range expansions in non-native predatory beetles on sub-Antarctic South Georgia

The human-assisted establishment of two non-native predatory carabid beetles (Merizodus soledadinus (Guerin-M,n,ville), Trechisibus antarcticus (Dejean)) on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia occurred 30-50 years ago, but the distribution of these species has never been the subject of regular...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Biology
Main Authors: Convey, Peter, Key, R.S., Key, R.J.D., Belchier, Mark, Waller, Catherine L.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Springer 2011
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Online Access:http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/14482/
Description
Summary:The human-assisted establishment of two non-native predatory carabid beetles (Merizodus soledadinus (Guerin-M,n,ville), Trechisibus antarcticus (Dejean)) on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia occurred 30-50 years ago, but the distribution of these species has never been the subject of regular monitoring, and was last assessed in the mid-1990s. Based on opportunistic collection records and directed field survey activities on South Georgia over four summer seasons between 2002/3 and 2008/9, we describe recent and important range expansions in both species on the island. The new distributional ranges of both species are highly suggestive of a continuing inadvertent human role in transferring them across the obstructions presented by tidewater glaciers or higher-altitude mountain passes. Both species now have the potential to spread unchecked by any other geographical obstructions across a large section of the north-east coast of the island and are likely to have considerable negative impacts on the elements of the native (including endemic) terrestrial invertebrate fauna