We analysed the structure of the communities of the ground beetles of the tribe Carabini (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in urban environments on the examples of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Donetsk and Lviv. The ground beetles of this tribe in the five researched megapolises are represented by 24 species of the Calosoma and Carabus genera. The cities each have from 9 (Kharkiv, Donetsk) — 11 (Kyiv) to 14–15 (Dnipro, Lviv) registered species. Only three species (Carabus granulatus, C. cancellatus, C. convexus) turned out to be present in all the studied cities, where they were relatively abundant, and six (Calosoma auropunctatum, C. inquisitor, Carabus coriaceus, C. marginalis, С. nemoralis, C. scabriusculus) were recorded reasonably frequently in most of the cities. In the parks of Kyiv and Lviv (south forest zone), forest (Carabus coriaceus, C. convexus, C. nemoralis) and polytopic species (C. сancellatus) were dominant, while the inhabitants of open biotopes (С. granulatus, C. excellens, C. scabriusculus) were uncommon. In Kharkiv (forest-steppe zone), the common species were both polytopic (Сarabus granulatus, C. cancellatus) and forest (C. marginalis). In Donetsk and Dnipro (steppe zone), some steppe elements (Carabus estreicheri, C. perrini, C. sibiricus) occurred, but the dominant species were habitat generalist (С. granulatus) and certain forest species (C. convexus). At the same time, almost half the recorded species of the tribe were registered as rare or accidental elements in the cities studied, though typical for the natural biocenoses of the geographic region surrounding those cities. A short ecological characteristic of all species of tribe in urbocenoses is given.
Ground beetles and tiger beetles are the most noticible representatives of predatory invertebrates often used in bioidentificational studies. This article provides quantitative and ecological characteristics of Caraboidea in five metroplises of Ukraine (Dnipro, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Lviv). In total, in these cities, 237 species of Caraboidea were recorded, belonging to 63 genera and two families – Carabidae (231 species, 61 genera) and Cicindelidae (6 species, 2 genera). By abundance of Carabidae in megapolises, 33 species were identified to abundant. Eudominants were represented by three species: Harpalus rufipes, Pterostichus melanarius and P. оblongopunctatus, dominants – five: Amara aenea, Anchomenus dorsalis, Calathus fuscipes, Harpalus distinguendus and Poecilus versicolor. Subdominants were 25 species: Amara similata, Asaphidion flavipes, Badister bullatus, Bembidion lampros, B. properans, Broscus cephalotes, Calathus ambiguus, C. melanocephalus, Carabus cancellatus, C. coriaceus, C. granulatus, Cylindera germanica, Harpalus affinis, H. anxius, H. griseus, H. latus, H. tardus, Limodromus assimilis, Microlestes minutulus, Nebria brevicollis, Notiophilus palustris, Poecilus cupreus, Pterostichus niger, P. ovoideus and P. strenuus. In the studied cities, 53 species are rare, 151 species were identified to the group of accidental species. For separate cities, number of eudominants ranged from 4 (Donetsk, Kyiv) to 6–8 (Kharkiv, Lviv). Ten species discovered: Amara famelica, A. majuscula, Anisodactylus nemorivagus, Asaphidion pallipes, Badister lacertosus, Blemus discus, Harpalus laeviceps, Limodromus krynickii, Pterostichus minor and Tachyta nana were new for the Steppe zone of Ukraine. Chlaenius aeneocephalus and Brachinus brevicollis were recorded for the first time in the Right Bank of the northern subzone of the steppe zone, and Stenolophus abdominalis mentioned earlier for the far south of Ukraine was for the first time reported for the northern Steppe. Microlestes nеgrita was new for the Forest Steppe, and Masoreus wetterhalli and Syntomus foveatus, known earlier for the forest zone and the south of the steppe zone, were for the first time reported for its northern subzone. The levels of faunistic similarity of Caraboidea for different metropolises ranged within 0.20–0.60 for all species and 0.32–0.90 for abundant species. Most similar were carabidofaunas of Kharkiv and Dnipro (similarity index of Jaccard equaled 0.58–0.87), slightly lower in Dnipro and Kyiv (0.50–0.72). Lowest parameters were seen for Lviv compared with the other cities (0.20–0.32). According to the species composition, the most numerous were meadow (119) and forest elements (59 species). To the polytopic group, 25 species are identified, 23 to the steppe group, and 11 species to the litoral group. In numbers in all the metropolises, the polytopic group dominated, among which abundant species comprised almost half. Within the forest group in Dnipro, Donetsk and Kharkiv, 4–6 abundant species were recorded, whereas in Kyiv and Lviv their number was 14–17 species. Within the meadow group, common species were represented by 4–11 species, and in the steppe and litoral groups such species were absent. In relation to moisture, eudominants were mesophiles (165 species), including 31 abundant species. According to the trophic specialization, zoophages dominated (146 species), including 24 abundant species. Among zoophytophages, 60 species (seven abundant) were recorded. Phytozoophages were represented by 30 species (two abundant). According to mechanical composition of soil, the more diverse groups were observed to be made up species preferring loamy and clay-loamy soils (85 species each), but to the abundant species from these groups, 6 and 10 species respectively were identified. The group of ground beetles with non-manifested preferences to mechanical composition of soil was represented by 41 species, though by number of abundant (17 species), the group was dominant. To inhabitants of heavy loamy, sandy and sabulous soils, 4, 6 and 16 species correspondingly were identified, and no abundant species were observed. At the level of abundant species, the ecological structure was more similar than shown by the analysis of all the species of ground beetles. Hypothetically, typical representatives of carabid beetles of Ukrainian metropolises could be considered polytopic or meadow (to a lesser extent forest) mesophile zoophages or zoophytophages which prefer loam-clayey soils without preference to one or the other type of soil.
A review of the ground beetles of the Ukrainian fauna is given. Almost 750 species from 117 genera of Carabidae are known to occur in the Ukraine. Approximately 450 species of ground beetles are registered in the Carpathian region. No less than 300 species of ground beetles are found in the forest zone. Approximately 400 species of Carabidae present in the forest-steppe zone are relatively similar in species composition to those in the forest territories. Some 450 species of Carabidae are inhabitants of the steppe zone. Representatives of many other regions of heterogeneous biotopes such as forest, semi desert, intrazonal, etc. can be found in the steppe areas. The fauna of Carabidae (ca. 100 species) of the lowlands of southern Ukraine (sandy biotopes), situated mostly in the Kherson region, is very peculiar. The fauna of the Crimean mountains contains about 300 species. Conservation measures for the Carabidae are discussed.
Being an essential driving factor in dry grassland ecosystems, uncontrolled fires can cause damage to isolated natural areas. We investigated a case of a small-scale mid-summer fire in an abandoned steppe pasture in northeastern Ukraine and focused on the post-fire recovery of arthropod assemblages (mainly spiders and beetles) and vegetation pattern. The living cover of vascular plants recovered in a year, while the cover of mosses and litter remained sparse for four years. The burnt site was colonised by mobile arthropods occurring in surrounding grasslands. The fire had no significant impact on arthropod diversity or abundance, but changed their assemblage structure, namely dominant complexes and trophic guild ratio. The proportion of phytophages reduced, while that of omnivores increased. The fire destroyed the variety of the arthropod assemblages created by the patchiness of vegetation cover. In the post-fire stage they were more similar to each other than at the burnt plot in the pre- and post-fire period. Spider assemblages tended to recover their pre-fire state, while beetle assemblages retained significant differences during the entire study period.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.