Zaharia: Studies regarding the diversity and abundance of Elaterids species (Coleoptera, Elateridae) in the soil of deciduous hill forest ecosystem from Moldavia, Romania

STUDIES REGARDING THE DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF ELATERIDS SPECIES (COLEOPTERA, ELATERIDAE) IN THE SOIL OF DECIDUOUS HILL FOREST ECOSYSTEM FROM MOLDAVIA, ROMANIA

Lacramioara (Ciuca) Zaharia [email protected] Museum of Natural Science “Ion Borcea”, Bacau1

Abstract

This paperwork presents the research regarding the diversity and the abundance of the click species identified in the soil of some forest ecosystems from Moldavia (Romania) both forests and forest nurseries. There were identified a number of 28 species belonging to 17 genera, most of them with a phytophagous diet, among which some are pests. We also present the spreading of larvae correlated with the type of soils and forests, and dendrograms for cenotical similarity.

Keywords: Elateridae, deciduous forests, Romania

1. Introduction

The elaterids are spread in all natural and anthropic ecosystems and their place in the ecology of natural habitat varies from one species to another, and, also to their development stages. The species with larval development in rotten or decayed wood affected or not by white or red rot, are predators and have a life cycle of one year. The species with larval stages in soil, larval development take place during 3 or 4 years, and these are phytophagous. The elaterids fauna of Romanian forest ecosystem was not very well studied from the ecological point of view and the spread of these species is closely related with some soil factors like density, pH- value, slope exposition and moisture, also forest type, species composition of the stands, trees density, and bushes are of tremendous importance. Along with the natural factors mentioned above in anthropic ecosystem like forest nurseries an important place is taken by the chemical treatments.

2. Material and methods

The biological material - most of it larvae of click beetles – was collected in different forest regions and forest nurseries from Moldavia. In order to collect specimens from forest nurseries we made soil polls. We made 80 soil polls in different forestry cultures in the following forest nurseries: Truşeşti (Botoşani district); Salcia (Suceava district); Târgu Neamţ and Başta (Piatra Neamţ district) and Inărie and Hanu Conachi (Galaţi district), and we collected 86 specimens. In order to study the diversity and the abundance of wireworms in forests’ soil we sampled stands from the following Forest Districts: Flămânzi, Darabani, Mihai Eminescu, Botoşani, Dorohoi and Truşeşti (Botoşani district); Pădureni, Hârlău, Paşcani, Podu Iloaiei (Iaşi district); Huşi, Brodoc, Băceşti (Vaslui district) and Galaţi (Galaţi district). In forests we made 746 soil polls and a number of 365 specimens were collected. The statistical analyses were performed by the means of BioDiversity Pro. There were used dendrograms and correspondence analysis.

IUFRO Working Party 7.03.10 Proceedings of the Workshop 2006, Gmunden/Austria 246 Zaharia: Studies regarding the diversity and abundance of Elaterids species (Coleoptera, Elateridae) in the soil of deciduous hill forest ecosystem from Moldavia, Romania

3. Results

In samples collected from forest ecosystems we identified 21 species belonging to15 genera and 5 subfamilies (Pyrophorinae, Cardiophorinae, , and Melanotinae), among these many species are phytophagous, the larva develops in the soil and a few (4 species) have the larval development also in rotten wood buried in soil. The specimens collected from forest nurseries were identified as 16 species from 8 genera among which some species are considered being pests for different agricultural and forestry crops. Most of the specimens identified in forest ecosystems belong to the species from Dendromentrinae subfamily - 289 included in 15 species. The highest number of specimens identified in forest nurseries belongs to the subfamily Elaterinae (54) exclusively to genus – which was identified only in anthropic influenced soil. In table 1 we present the species of click beetles for each forest and soil type. The greatest number of species was identified in sessile forests with mull vegetation – 17 species and a density of 0.5 specimens/m2. High diversity was found, also in hill mixed forests with sessile oak (10 species and a density of 0.71 specimens/m2) on brown luvisoils and mixed sessile oak forests (10 species, 0.37 specimens/m2) on the same type of soil. A lower diversity was found in mixed steppe oak forests from hill region on alluvial soils (3 species and 0.60 specimens/m2), mixed sessile oak forests with (3 species and a density of 0.83 specimens/m2), sessile slope oak forests with Luzula luzuloides (3 species and 0.64 specimens/m2) and sessile oak forests from river meadows with Carex pilosa. The lowest species diversity was found in the plateau sessile oak forests on heavy soils and sessile oak forests with Lithospermum purpureo – coerulens – 1 species. In beech and hornbeam forest with mull vegetation and in beech stand we didn’t identified any specimens of wireworms. The percent of each click species from forests soil fauna is also shown in the table 1. Out of the 21 identified species 35.1 % of the collected specimens belong to haemorrhoidalis (Fabricius, 1801). Other species with high abundance are: brunnipes (Germar, 1824) – 15.1 % (55 specimens), tessellatus (Linnaeus, 1758) – 13.4 % (49 specimens), and Nothodes parvulus (Panzer, 1799) - 13.4 % (13.2 specimens). These species were constantly identified in the most of the collected samples. The diversity and abundance of click beetles species identified in forest nurseries are presented in table 2. The dominant species is Agriotes ustulatus (Schaller, 1783) with 30.2 %, followed by (Linnaeus, 1758) with 12.8 % and (Linnaeus, 1758) with 10.5 %. Below 10 percent are the rest of the species among which (Fabricius, 1801) has 9.3 %, Athous mollis (Reitter, 1905) and (Linnaeus, 1767) both with 5.8 %. In forests nurseries the species with high percentage belong especially to the genus Agriotes and in forests soil the dominant species belongs to Athous, and Prosternon genera from Dendrometrinae subfamily. Also, we didn’t identify species from Agriotes genus in forests soils.

IUFRO Working Party 7.03.10 Proceedings of the Workshop 2006, Gmunden/Austria 247 Zaharia: Studies regarding the diversity and abundance of Elaterids species (Coleoptera, Elateridae) in the soil of deciduous hill forest ecosystem from Moldavia, Romania

Table 1: The diversity and abundance of click beetles species for each type of forest

)

2

1858)

Elaterids species identified in ,

studied type of deciduous 1799) (Panzer, (Fabricius, 1801) (Fabricius, (Fabricius,1792) (DeGeer, 1774)

forests on various soils (Herbst, 1784) (Linnaeus, 1758) (Herbst, 1784) (Herbst, (Germar, 1824) (Germar, (Poda, 1761) (Poda, (Fourcroy, 1785) (Linnaeus, 1758) (Linnaeus, 1758) (Linnaeus, (Panzer,1799) (Fabricius, 1801) (Fabricius, (Müller, 1767) (Kiesenwetter (Goeze, 1777) (Goeze, (Gmelin, 1790) Density (specimens/m Density Cardiophorus asellus (Erichson,Cardiophorus 1840) haemorrhoidalis Athous niger parvulus Nothodes linearis purpureus (Linnaeus, 1758) Paraphotistus impressus murinus murinus Agrypnus equiseti Dicronychus sacheri Athous undulatus Diacanthous hirtus Hemicrepidius nigricornis Paraphotistus latus sinuatus (Germar,1844) brunnipes Melanotus Melanotus villosus Hill mixed forests with sessile oak – 3 30 6 6 3 15 9 1 2 22 0.7 harpalic luvisols Mixed oak forest with sessile oak – 15 1 1 1 9 6 1 1 10 0.8 harpalic luvisoils Slope and plateau oak forests from 6 4 1 1 1.1 hill region – harpalic luvisols Sessile oak forests with mull 4 1 48 8 2 1 1 1 7 1 2 13 1 2 9 1 0.5 vegetation – harpalic luvisols Mixed sessile oak forest –harpalic 1 18 2 2 15 13 2 1 1 6 0.4 luvisols Plateau sessile oak forests on heavy 2 1 soil – stagnic luvisols Mixed sessile oak forest with beech 2 1 2 2 0.9 – harpalic luvisols Mixed sessile oak forests with beech 1 1 6 3 2 1 1 0.4 from hill region – harpalic luvisols Beech and hornbeam forest with 0 mull vegetation – harpalic luvisols Mixed oak forest from hill region – 1 1 0.7 calcic luvisols Terrace oak forests – stagnic luvisols 1 0.02 Mixed oak steppe forests from hill 3 1 2 0.6 region – luvic chernozems Sessile oak slope forests with Luzula 2 1 6 0.7 luzuloides – harpalic luvisols Beech hill forests - luvic stagnic 0 phaeozems Mixt meadow hill forests – greyic 0 fluvisols Sessile oak forests with 1 0.3 Lithospermum purpureo-coeruleum – greyic phaeozems Sessile oak forests from river 1 1 3 2.5 meadows with Carex pilosa – harpalic luvisoil TOTAL 14 1 1 128 16 8 17 4 1 2 1 48 1 2 49 1 4 6 3 55 2 364 Percentage 3.8 0.3 0.3 35.1 4.4 2.2 4.7 1.1 0.3 0.5 0.3 13.2 0.3 0.5 13.4 0.3 1.1 1.6 0.8 15.1 0.5

IUFRO Working Party 7.03.10 Proceedings of the Workshop 2006, Gmunden/Austria 248 Zaharia: Studies regarding the diversity and abundance of Elaterids species (Coleoptera, Elateridae) in the soil of deciduous hill forest ecosystem from Moldavia, Romania

Table 2: The diversity and abundance of click beetles species for each sampled forest nursery

SPECIA ţ ş i ş ti rie ş ta ş e ă Ba Salcia In Traian Traian Tru Hemeiu of specimens Târgu Neam Percentage from from Percentage the total number the total number

1. (Linnaeus 1758) 1 1 2.3 2. Drasterius bimaculatus (Rossi 1790) 1 1.2 3. Athous haemorrhoidalis (Fabricius, 1801) 1 6 1 9.3 4. Athous sacheri (Kiesenwetter, 1858) 1 2 3.5 5. Athous mollis (Reitter, 1905) 3 2 5.8 6. Athous lomnickii (Reitter, 1905) 2 2 4.7 7. (Leske, 1785) 1 1.2 8. Nothodes parvulus (Panzer 1799) 2 2 4.7 9. Selatosomus latus (Fabricius, 1801) 1 2 3.5 10. Agriotes ustulatus (Schaller, 1783) 2 10 14 30.2 11. Agriotes lineatus (Linnaeus, 1767) 1 1 2 1 5.8 12. Agriotes sputator (Linnaeus, 1758) 1 7 1 10.5 13. Agriotes obscurus (Linnaeus, 1758) 5 2 1 3 12.8 14. Agriotes gurgistanus (Faldermann, 1835) 2 2.3 15. Agriotes pilosellus (Schönherr, 1817) 1 1.2 16. Melanotus crassicollis (Erichson, 1841) 1 1.2 Total 10 4 12 16 7 29 8

4. Discussion and conclusion

After calculating the cenotical similarity index we made up dendrograms in order to show the preferences for similar environmental conditions. Forest species like: Anostirus purpureus (Poda, 1761), (Linnaeus, 1758), (Linnaeus, 1758) and Dicronychus equiseti (Herbst, 1784) show the highest similarity in the dendrogram from figure 1 in accordance with their preferences for the same conditions, being identified in oak forest on harpalic luvisoils. High values of the Jaccard index were recorded for the pairs of the species Prosternon tessellatum (Linnaeus, 1758) – Athous subfuscus (Müller) (75), both identified in different types of sessile oak forests on harpalic luvisoils, and Selatosomus latus (Fabricius, 1801) – Paraphotistus nigricornis (Panzer,1799) (66,67). The highest values of similarity among the species collected from forest nurseries were recorded for the two pairs of species (100): Agriotes pilosellus (Schönherr, 1817) – Agriotes gurgistanus (Faldermann, 1835) (identified only at Trusesti) and Athous lomnickii (Reitter, 1905) – Athous mollis (Reitter, 1905) (species from higher areas spread at the edge of forest ecosystems identified only in the forest nurseries from Basta and Targu Neamt). Relatively high values of Jaccard index was recorded, especially due to their geographical distribution, for the following pair of species: Agriotes lineatus (Linnaeus, 1767) – Selatosomus latus (Fabricius, 1801); Agriotes sputator (Linnaeus, 1758) – Athous haemorrhoidalis (Fabricius, 1801); Athous sacheri (Kiesenwetter, 1858) – Drasterius bimaculatus (Rossi, 1790) and Cidnopus pilosus (Leske, 1785) – Agrypnus murinus (Linnaeus, 1758) (figure 2).

IUFRO Working Party 7.03.10 Proceedings of the Workshop 2006, Gmunden/Austria 249 Zaharia: Studies regarding the diversity and abundance of Elaterids species (Coleoptera, Elateridae) in the soil of deciduous hill forest ecosystem from Moldavia, Romania

Figure 1. Dendrogram based on Jaccard similarity index for the elaterids species identified in forest ecosystems

Figure 2. Dendrogram based on Jaccard similarity index for the elaterids species identified in forest nurseries

IUFRO Working Party 7.03.10 Proceedings of the Workshop 2006, Gmunden/Austria 250 Zaharia: Studies regarding the diversity and abundance of Elaterids species (Coleoptera, Elateridae) in the soil of deciduous hill forest ecosystem from Moldavia, Romania

Based on species distribution and abundance, correspondence analysis presented in the figure 3 shows the forest grouped against the axis as following:

- Axis 1 arranges the sampled vegetation types with respect to the slope angle, related to the altitude, exposition and the soil humidity; below axis 1 are arranged the vegetations types spread at higher altitudes, on more inclined slope with lower humidity and above this axis are gathered stands from lower altitudes like sessile oak forests with Lithospermum purpureo- coeruleum spread at the edge of steppe vegetation or sessile oak forests with Carex pilosa from river meadows.

Axis 1

1. Hill mixed forests with sessile oak – harpalic luvisols 2 Axis 2. Mixed oak forest with sessile oak – harpalic luvisoils 3. Slope and plateau oak forests from hill region – harpalic luvisols 4. Sessile oak forests with mull vegetation – harpalic luvisols 5. Mixed sessile oak forest –harpalic luvisols 6. Plateau sessile oak forests on heavy soil – stagnic luvisols 7. Mixed sessile oak forest with beech – harpalic luvisols 8. Mixed sessile oak forests with beech from hill region – harpalic luvisols 9. Mixed oak forest from hill region – calcic luvisols 10. Terrace oak forests – stagnic luvisols 11. Mixed oak steppe forests from hill region – luvic chernozems 12. Sessile oak slope forests with Luzula luzuloides – harpalic luvisols 13. Sessile oak forests with Lithospermum purpureo-coeruleum – greyic phaeozems 14. Sessile oak forests from river meadows with Carex pilosa – harpalic luvisoil

Figure 3. Correspondence analysis for the sampled forest type.

IUFRO Working Party 7.03.10 Proceedings of the Workshop 2006, Gmunden/Austria 251 Zaharia: Studies regarding the diversity and abundance of Elaterids species (Coleoptera, Elateridae) in the soil of deciduous hill forest ecosystem from Moldavia, Romania

- Axis 2 separates the stand with sessile oak from the other types of oak forests, in the right side are grouped the following type of forests, with high percentage of Quercus robur: hill mixed forests with sessile oak; mixed oak forest with sessile oak, sessile oak forests with Lithospermum purpureo-coeruleum, plateau sessile oak forests on heavy soil; sessile oak forests from river meadows with Carex pilosa and mixed sessile oak forest with beech. The biological material - most of it larvae of click beetles – was collected in different forest regions and forest nurseries from Moldavia. In forest nurseries we made 80 soil polls and in forests we made 746 soil polls. We identified 28 species belonging to 17 genera. In forests were identified a number of 21 species belonging to 15 genera. There were collected 378 specimens. The most abundant and frequent species from forest ecosystems consisting mostly in Quercus stands was found Athous haemorrhoidalis (Fabricius, 1801). Along with the following species were frequent and abundant: Nothodes parvulus (Panzer, 1799); Melanotus brunnipes (Germar, 1824) and Prosternon tessellatum (Linnaeus, 1758). The group made up of the following species: Anostirus purpureus (Poda, 1761), Denticollis linearis (Linnaeus, 1758), Hemicrepidius niger (Linnaeus, 1758) and Dicronychus equiseti (Herbst, 1784) showed high similarity and preference for the same ecosystems - oak forest on harpalic luvisoils. In forests nurseries we identified a number of 16 species out of 83 collected specimens, these species belong to 8 genera. Most of the wireworms fauna identified in forest nurseries concerns pest species from Agriotes genus, the most abundant and frequent identified species being the following: Agriotes ustulatus (Schaller, 1783), Agriotes obscurus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Agriotes sputator (Linnaeus, 1758); which totalized over 50 % of the collected specimens. In forests nurseries the species with high percentage belong especially to the genus Agriotes but in forests soil the dominant species belongs to Athous and Prosternon genera from Dendrometrinae subfamily. Also, we didn’t identify species from Agriotinae subfamily in forests soils.

5. Acknowledgments

I would like to thank to Mr. Professor Gheorghe Mustata from Iasi University for his permanent support and advices and to Ciornei Constantin, forest researcher at Forest Research and Management Institute Bacau, for his field help during data collecting.

6. References BARSEVSKIS, A. 2005: (Catalogue of click - beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) of Latvia), Proceedings on and Faunistics of Beetles (Coleoptera) dedicated to the 100th birthday of the Latvian entomologist Mihails Stiprais (1905 - 1990), 7-28 (in English).

CIUCĂ LĂCRĂMIOARA 2003: (The catalogue of click beetles species (Elateridae, Coleoptera) identified in Moldavia), Analele Ştiinţifice ale Universităţii “Al.I. Cuza” Iaşi, s. Biologie Animală, (Iaşi) Tom XLIX: 95-109 (in English).

PERJU, T. & MARE, T. 1984: Viermi sârmă – Recunoaştere, biologie, ecologie şi combatere, Ed. Ceres, Bucureşti, 111 pg (in Romanian).

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