Comunity of soil fauna Coleoptera in the remnants of lowland Atlantic Forest in state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

The soil fauna plays an important role in the ecological function of an ecosystem and studies on the composition and structure of these communities are important to understand your functioning. The objective of our study was to evaluate of community of the soil fauna Coleoptera, collected bimonthly through pitfall trap, from August 2003 to August 2004. A total of 10,820 specimens from 24 families of Coleoptera were captured, but Nitidulidae (4,782 individuals), Curculionidae (3,176), Scarabaeidae (2,019) and Staphylinidae (326) were considered abundant families. According to the trophic guild, the collected individuals can be divided into detritivores (4,802 specimens), herbivores (3,218), decomposers (2,019), predators (621) and fungivoros (160). These results indicate no dominance of a single trophic group, however, the high occurrence of detritivores (44.4%), herbivores (29.7%) and decomposers (18.7%) was registered. About 61.8% (6,685 individuals) were captured during October 2003 to March 2004, a rainy period, and 38.2% (4,135) during the dry period indicating a pronounced seasonal difference in the relative abundance of individuals sampled. The high frequency of individuals was observed during the October and December, 2003, and March, 2004.