Biodiv Sci ›› 2002, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (2): 143-148.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2002017

Special Issue: 昆虫多样性与生态功能

• Special Issue • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Studies on species diversity of histerid beetles (Coleoptera: Histeridae) in Dongling Mountain

LUO Tian-Hong, YU Xiao-Dong, ZHOU Hong-Zhang *   

  1. Institute of Zoology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100080
  • Received:2001-11-22 Revised:2002-04-08 Online:2002-05-20 Published:2002-05-20

Abstract: Species diversity of histerid beetles (Coleoptera: Histeridae) was investigated in Dongling Mountain, about 114 km west of Beijing, China. Using four kinds of collecting methods, we collected 2224 specimens of Histeridae belonging to 6 genera and 17 species. Of the collected species, Saprinus niponicus, Onthophilus foveipennis, Margarinotus niponicus and M.reichardti accounted for 88.22% of total collected specimens. These four species each over 10% of total specimens, could be categorized to commonly occurring species. Twelve histerid species, namely 70.19% of total specimens were captured by meat bait, 8 species (23.61%) by pitfall traps, 8 species (4.81%) by grass bait, and 2 species (1.39%) by sifter. Onthophilus foveipennis, a dominant species captured by pitfall traps, occurred usually only in mixed broad leaved forests in Xiaolongmen. Populations were high in May and September, and peaked in September. For histerid beetles from meat bait, we analyzed species diversity and similarity in eight plots representing three types of habitats in Xiaolongmen. Diversity index ( H ′) and evenness index ( J ) were higher in broad-leaved woods than in coniferous and mixed woods. Mixed woods were the highest in number of species and of individuals and lowest in evenness. Coniferous woods showed a low value of diversity and number of individuals. Analyzing the similarity coefficient ( q ) of histerid beetle communities, we found that similarity between pairs of the eight plots decreased as distance between the plots increased, independent of habitat types. We also compared species diversity between Xiaolongmen, a well-protected forest area, and Liyuanling, an area of farmlands abandoned five years ago and interspersed with small hills. We found higher values of diversity and evenness and lower values of individual number in Liyuanling. These results suggest that compositions and distributions of histerid beetles are influenced by habitat protection, disturbance and geographic distances, and that species diversity could be conserved through increasing forest coverage and decreasing human disturbance in the Dongling Mountain.