Studies on species diversity of histerid beetles (Coleoptera: Histeridae) in Dongling Mountain
东灵山区阎甲物种多样性研究

Species diversity of histerid beetles (Coleoptera: Histeridae ) was investigated in DonglingMountain, about 114 km west of Beijing, China. Using four kinds of collecting methods, we collected2224 specimens of Histeridae belonging to 6 genera and 17 species. Of the collected species, Saprinusniponicus, Onthophilus foveipennis, Margarinotus niponicus an d M. reichardti accounted for 88. 22% of to-tal collected specimens. These four species each over 10% of total specimens, could be categorized tocommonly occurring species. Twelve histerid species, namely 70. 19% of total specimens were capturedby meat bait, 8 species (23. 61% ) by pitfall traps, 8 species (4. 81% ) by grass bait, and 2 species(1. 39% ) by sifter. Onthophilusfoveipennis, a dominant species captured by pitfall traps, occurred usu-ally 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 similari-ty in eight plots representing three types of habitats in Xiaolongmen. Diversity index (H' ) and evennessindex (J) were higher in broad-leaved woods than in coniferous and mixed woods. Mixed woods were thehighest in number of species and of individuals and lowest in evenness. Coniferous woods showed a lowvalue of diversity and number of individuals. Analyzing the similarity coefficient (q) of histerid beetlecommunities, we found that similarity between pairs of the eight plots decreased as distance between theplots 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 inter-spersed with small hills. We found higher values of diversity and evenness and lower values of individualnumber in Liyuanling. These results suggest that compositions and distributions of histerid beetles are in-fluenced by habitat protection, disturbance and geographic distances, and that species diversity could beconserved through increasing forest coverage and decreasing human disturbance in the Dongling Moun-tain.