The effect of land use on the community structure distribution and abundance of ground beetles (insecta: coleoptera) in a guinea savanna in Nigeria

Abstract

A study was carried out to investigate the ground beetles of four habitats - cultivated farmland, Ifallow plo, a marshy plot and a secondary regrowth forest at the permanent site o Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria for a twelve-month period using the pitall technique. Species of Coleoptera obtained from the four pots include Macrocheilus labrosus, Hyparpalus sp., Carpophilusfumatus (Boh.), Podagrica uniforma (Jac.), Tetragonothorax sp., Chlaenius sp., Pheropsophus parallus (Dej.), Silidus apicalis (Waterh), Tenebroides mauritanicus (L), Heteroderes sp. Heterorynchus licas (Klug.) and Mylabris sp., Analysis of Varance (ANOVA) indicate that the abundance o beetles wee significantly different in the cultvated farmland (F = 6.062). The resultof Fisher’s Least Significance Difference (F-LSD) test shows that the pitfall catches of beetles fromthe four sampling sites were also sgnificantly different. The heterogeneity of the coleopteran species at the cultivated plot was traced to cultivation. The role of certain coleopteran families asfaunal indicators was highlighted. Other factors, which influenced the Coleopteran species at thefour plots, were also discussed.

Keywords: Insecta, Coleoptera, Agroecosystems, Distribution, Abundance, Guinea Savanna, Nigeria