Mobilising Biodiversity Data on Sabah’s Dung Beetles
Through our Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) project, Mobilising Data on Ecologically Important Insects in Malaysia and Singapore, we brought together information on dung beetles (Scarabaeinae) from scientific literature, museum collections and data collected from the field.
Focusing on dung beetles in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, our work has resulted in an open-access sampling event and occurrence dataset containing more than 27,000 records, alongside a taxonomic checklist documenting Sabah's dung beetle diversity. To compliment the datasets, we published a data paper describing how they were created and included some preliminary analyses.
Beyond data mobilisation, these resources have supported regional and global IUCN Red List assessments. We are also building a photographic reference collection for majority of the species, developing a guidebook to Sabah’s lowland dung beetles, and working towards a molecular barcode dataset.
By connecting occurrence records, taxonomy, photographs and molecular information, we aim to make biodiversity data more accessible and useful for future research and conservation.
Watch the video above to learn more about the project, our methods and its ongoing outputs.
Sampling and Occurrence Records of Dung Beetles from Sabah, Malaysia Borneo: https://doi.org/10.15468/kdt8vd
Taxonomic Checklist of the Dung Beetles of Sabah, Malaysia Borneo: https://doi.org/10.15468/r8s697
A comprehensive synthesis of dung beetle records from Sabah, Malaysia: https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.12.e126697
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