A faunistic study on Carabidae and Scarabaeidae in alfalfa fields from Central Greece
-
Evangelos G. Badieritakis
,
Argyro A. Fantinou
Abstract
This paper presents a study of the composition of Carabidae and Scarabaeidae among other surface-active Coleoptera along with their seasonal fluctuation, species richness and relative abundance in three alfalfa hay fields from Kopais Valley (Greece) over a period of systematic samplings (June 2008 to May 2010). Field A was cut monthly (about 4 times per year) and field B bimonthly (3 times), although no field was sprayed. Field C was cut monthly and sprayed with the insecticide bifenthrin three times during the growing season. In total, 48 species of soil Coleoptera belonging to 11 families (particularly Carabidae and Scarabaeidae) were recorded. The family Carabidae was dominated by autumn breeders, with a spring and autumn activity-density peak. Agricultural management did not cause differences in the estimated number of species.
Acknowledgements
We thank A. Legakis, I. Anastasiou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) and A. Tsagkarakis (Agricultural University of Athens, AUA) for their help with carabid beetle identification, the Laboratory of Plant Breeding and Biometry of AUA for help with statistics, A. Trichas (Natural History Museum of Crete) and D. Kaltsas for advice and the Farm Unit of AUA for help with the experiments. This study was funded by the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece.
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Appendix 1
Taxa, relative abundance (%) (percentage of total catches) and total catches of surface-active Coleoptera recorded in alfalfa fields A, B, C during the two-year study (2008–2010) in Kopais Valley (Central Greece).
| Taxon | Relative abundance (%) in 2008–2009 | Relative abundance (%) in 2009–2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field A | Field B | Field C | Field A | Field B | Field C | |
| Family Carabidae | ||||||
| Amara aenea (De Geer, 1774) | 5.59 | 3.62 | 8.49 | 5.73 | 4.29 | 2.17 |
| Amara reflexicollis Motschulsky, 1844 | 0.31 | 0.19 | 0.04 | 0.70 | 0.05 | |
| Amara similata (Gyllenhal, 1810) | – | 0.07 | – | – | 0.21 | 0.02 |
| Amara spp. | 0.83 | 1.27 | 1.17 | 2.71 | 1.02 | 0.35 |
| Amblystomus sp. | 0.07 | |||||
| Anchomenus dorsalis (Pontopiddan, 1763) | – | – | – | 0.06 | – | – |
| Anisodactylus intermedius Dejean, 1829 | 0.04 | 0.03 | – | – | 0.15 | – |
| Brachinus spp. | 0.08 | 0.48 | 0.21 | 0.36 | 0.33 | 0.22 |
| Calathus ambiguus (Paykull, 1790) | 2.62 | 7.31 | 3.71 | 1.70 | 1.42 | 0.85 |
| Calathus melanocephalus L., 1758 | 0.79 | 0.55 | 1.14 | 0.96 | 0.61 | 0.15 |
| Calathus nr cinctus | 0.03 | 0.12 | 0.07 | 0.06 | 0.29 | 0.01 |
| Calosoma auropunctatum (Herbst, 1784) | 0.64 | 0.57 | 1.85 | 0.57 | 0.07 | – |
| Carabus coriaceus L., 1758 | 0.07 | 0.10 | 0.37 | 0.05 | ||
| Cylindera germanica (L., 1758) | 10.51 | 16.58 | 6.11 | 2.63 | 0.85 | 0.71 |
| Dolichus halensis (Schaller, 1783) | 0.03 | 0.11 | 0.08 | – | – | – |
| Drypta dentata (Rossi, 1790) | – | – | – | 0.04 | – | – |
| Harpalus cupreus Dejean, 1829 | 1.70 | 0.20 | 0.63 | 1.26 | 1.99 | 0.19 |
| Harpalus dimidiatus (Rossi, 1790) | 1.01 | 0.70 | 0.77 | 2.48 | 4.13 | 0.71 |
| Harpalus distinguendus (Duftschmid, 1812) | – | – | – | – | – | 0.02 |
| Harpalus nr caspius | 0.52 | 0.21 | 0.67 | 2.70 | 3.24 | 0.49 |
| Harpalus rufipes (De Geer, 1774) | 11.15 | 17.84 | 9.26 | 25.55 | 35.34 | 15.98 |
| Harpalus serripes (Quensel in Schönherr, 1806) | – | 0.03 | – | – | – | – |
| Leistus sp. | 0.17 | 0.05 | 0.06 | – | 0.01 | |
| Ophonus cribricollis (Dejean, 1829) | 0.08 | 0.03 | 0.17 | 0.10 | 0.13 | 0.03 |
| Pangus scaritides (Sturm, 1818) | 0.07 | |||||
| Poecilus cupreus (L., 1758) | 2.39 | 6.17 | 5.29 | 0.04 | – | 0.03 |
| Pterostichus niger (Schaller, 1783) | 2.08 | 0.22 | 0.09 | 0.07 | ||
| Pterostichus macer (Marsham, 1802) | 0.12 | – | 0.16 | – | 0.07 | 0.05 |
| Nebria spp. | 0.15 | 0.03 | 0.26 | 0.30 | – | 0.04 |
| Notiophilus sp. | 1.89 | 0.12 | 4.45 | 0.44 | 0.39 | 0.05 |
| Scarites terricola Bonelli, 1813 | – | – | 0.04 | – | – | – |
| Scybalicus oblongiusculus (Dejean, 1829) | 0.03 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Family Cerambycidae | ||||||
| Chlorophorus sp. | 0.07 | 0.03 | 0.05 | 0.08 | 0.14 | – |
| Family Chrysomelidae (one species) | 3.31 | 5.48 | 3.22 | 13.23 | 9.23 | 1.63 |
| Family Curculionidae | ||||||
| Apion pisi F. | 2.64 | 1.71 | 0.97 | 0.91 | 1.15 | 0.25 |
| Hypera variabilis (Herbst, 1795) | 1.04 | 1.26 | 2.44 | 1.84 | 0.65 | 0.15 |
| Rhynchophorinae (one species) | – | – | – | 0.09 | – | 0.02 |
| Sitona lineatus L., 1758 | 2.97 | 3.14 | 2.50 | 2.60 | 1.44 | 0.28 |
| Family Dermestidae | ||||||
| Dermestes sp. | 0.10 | – | 0.09 | 0.04 | 0.05 | – |
| Family Elateridae (one species) | 8.03 | 5.40 | 17.29 | 0.23 | 0.26 | 0.15 |
| Family Histeridae (one species) | 1.20 | 3.94 | 2.78 | 0.53 | 0.82 | 0.30 |
| Family Scarabaeidae | ||||||
| Anomala sp. | – | – | – | 0.06 | – | – |
| Aphodius sp. | 0.03 | 0.07 | 0.24 | – | 0.07 | 0.09 |
| Chilothorax sp. | 0.04 | 0.07 | 0.42 | 25.14 | 1.56 | 71.55 |
| Dynastinae (one species) | 0.24 | 0.28 | 0.48 | 0.66 | 0.05 | |
| Gymnopleurus sp. | 0.50 | 0.79 | 0.26 | – | 1.30 | 0.03 |
| Onthophagus spp. | 31.46 | 13.64 | 15.34 | 2.28 | 20.94 | 1.45 |
| Family Silphidae | ||||||
| Ablattaria laevigata (F., 1775) | 0.13 | 0.13 | 0.67 | 0.75 | 1.78 | 0.29 |
| Nicrophorus vestigator Herschel, 1807 | 1.09 | 0.82 | 1.46 | 0.05 | 0.41 | 0.13 |
| Silpha obscura L., 1758 | 1.34 | 3.19 | 2.18 | 0.69 | 0.69 | 0.18 |
| Family Staphylinidae (one species) | 3.31 | 3.03 | 4.54 | 1.76 | 1.79 | 0.83 |
| Family Tenebrionidae (one species) | 0.22 | 0.21 | 0.30 | 1.74 | 1.32 | 0.37 |
Dominant (> 5%), Subdominant (1–5%), Rare (< 1%)
© 2016 Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
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