Preliminary monitoring effort on online trading of Indonesian horned beetles and stag beetles (insecta: Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Lucanidae) on facebook.

Wildlife trading that involves insects as commodity has shifted into using online trading system to engage sellers with their potential buyers. Facebook, aside from being social media platform for daily activity, has been used as the trading medium for various wildlife species. In this paper, we report the preliminary monitoring on the trading of two popular Coleoptera families, horned beetles (Scarabaeidae) and stag beetles (Lucanidae) using Facebook as medium. The study used internet survey by specifically look for groups, pages and personal accounts in Facebook that actively involve with the two beetle families. There are six Facebook groups that dedicate their activities mainly on horned beetles and stag beetles, with two of them housing more than thousands of members and regular posts or adverts. Three are only three Facebook pages found with two of them currently have hundreds to thousands of followers. Meanwhile, there were 90 personal accounts named as 'kumbang tanduk' or Indonesian name for the beetles of interest with possible 20 accounts that involve with either or both horned beetles and stag beetles. This study provides proof on the extensive use of internet for wildlife trading, which previously thought only dominated by the trading of high-profile taxa like mammals, birds or reptiles. If combined with surveying other social media platforms, this online monitoring can be a reliable way to quantify the trading volume for the beetles and other insect species that essential to establish their conservation status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]