In the name of ALLAH The Merciful The Compassionate BIODIVERSITY OF STAPHYLINIDS OF PUNJAB, PAKISTAN BY SHABAB NASIR M. Sc. (Hons.) Agricultural Entomology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Agricultural Entomology FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, FAISALABAD PAKISTAN 2011 To The Controller of Examinations, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad We, the supervisory committee, certify that the content and form of the thesis submitted by Mr. Shabab Nasir, Regd. No. 94-ag-1024 have been found satisfactory and recommend that it be processed for evaluation by the External Examiner (s) for the award of degree. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE 1. CHAIRMAN: ………………………………………….. (Dr. Waseeem Akram) 2. MEMBER: ………………………………………….. (Dr. Farooq Ahmed) 3. MEMBER: ………………………………………….. (Dr. Shahbaz Talib Sahi) ii DEDICATED To My Family iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS If oceans turn into ink and all of the woods become pens, even then the praises of ALMIGHTY ALLAH cannot be expressed. I offer my humblest and sincerest thanks to The ALMIGHTY ALLAH. My humblest and the deepest obligations are also paid, with great honor and esteem to The Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), The cause of creation of this universe, the greatest Social Reformer and Benefactor of mankind. I extend deep emotions of appreciation and gratitude to my worthy supervisory committee Dr. Waseem Akram, Dr. Farooq Ahmed, Department of Agri. Entomology, and Dr. Shahbaz Talib Sahi, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, from the core of my heart. I am very thankful Dr. Waseem Akram, for dynamic supervision, keen interest, encouraging behavior, stimulating discussion and valuable suggestions, at all times during the study program that finally enabled me to prepare this manuscript. I am also thankful to Prof. Dr. Mohammad Ashfaq (T.I) Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, for his valuable suggestions and guidance from time to time during the conduct of this research. Special thanks also for Higher Education Commission (HEC) who provided economical support during the course of my study. I would like to thanks Dr. Vladimir Gussaravo, for providing me research facilities during the conduct of my work during Ph.D research fellowship in the six month training at Natural History Museum, Oslo University, Norway. I am thankful to my friends and lab fellows especially Dr. Unsar Naeem Ullah, Dr. Muhammad Arshad, Dr. Rashid Rasool Khan, Faisal Hafeez and Hafiz Muhammad Azhar Ali as their presence encouraged me in hardships. I shall be missing something if I don’t extend my admiration and appreciation to my lovely and sweet friend, Mr. Khuram Zia Khan, Lecturer, Department of Agri. Entomology, for his cooperation. Last but not least, I have no words to pay compliments to my Father, the Dearest Mother, my wife and my children, for their affection, encouragement, patience, amiable attitude, moral support and prayers for my success. I further extend my appreciation to my aunt, brothers and sisters who always rendered best wishes for me and wished to see me glittering on the skies of success. (May Allah keep them all smiling always! Ameen) Shabab Nasir iv CONTENTS Chapter Title Page # ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES xv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xvii ABSTRACT xviii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Biodiversity 1 1.2 Arthropoda 1 1.3 Staphylinidae 2 1.4 Natural History 2 1.5 Collection Methods 4 5 1.6 Statement of Objectives 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 6 6 2.1 Biodiversity 6 i) Pre- Cameron (systematic) era 7 ii) Cameron (systematic) era 8 iii) Post Cameron (systematic, behavioural and ecological) era 9 2.2 Methods of Collection 9 i) Pitfall trapping 9 ii) Berlese funnel trapping 10 iii) Flight Intercept Traps (FIT’S) 10 v iv) Hand Collection 10 v) Sweep Net 11 vi) Light Traps 3 MATERIALS AND METHODS 12 3.1 Choice of the locality 12 i) Cultivated area 12 ii) Forest area 12 3.2 Establishment of plots 13 i) Quantity and designation of plots 13 ii) Positions of Localities 13 3.3 Choice of season and sample organization 17 i) Choice of season 17 ii) Sampling timetable 17 3.4 Environmental Parameters 18 i) Temperature 18 ii) Humidity 18 iii) Moisture contents 18 iv) Weather conditions 18 v) Geographic Information System (GIS) 18 3.5 Collection of Rove beetles 18 i) Surveying of sites 18 ii) Collection 18 3.6 Types and number of traps 19 i) Flight intercept trap (FIT) 19 ii) Pit fall traps 20 iii) Light trap 22 iv) Berlese Funnel 23 v) Sweep netting and hand picking 24 3.7 Storage and identification 24 i) Storage techniques 24 ii) Identification 24 iii) Equipments Used 25 3.8 Statistical analysis 25 i) Simple Percentage 25 ii) Chi-square Test of Association 25 iii) Shanon Weaver’s index 25 iv) ANOVA & HSDT 26 v) Cluster Analysis 26 vi 4 RESULTS 27 4.1 Staphylinidae fauna of the Punjab 27 4.2 Abiotic factors variations 29 i) Environmental temperature variation 29 ii) Relative humidity variations 30 iii) Soil moisture contents 30 4.3 Relationship of population in cropped and forest areas 32 4.4 Status of different species and their relationship with 69 abiotic factors Sub-family Oxytelinae 69 i) Oxytelus varipennis 69 ii) Oxytelus ferrugineus 70 iii) Oxytelus sordidus 70 iv) Platystethus cornutus 71 Sub-family Paederinae 72 i) Paederus fuscipes 72 ii) Paederus tumulus 73 iii) Paederus pubscens 74 iv) Paederus basalis 74 v) Stilicus ceylanensis 75 vi) Astenus sp. 76 vii) Cryptobium abdominalis 77 Sub-family Staphylininae 78 i) Philonthus delicatulus 78 ii) Philonthus minutus 79 iii) Philonthus cinotulus 80 iv) Philonthus thermarum 80 v) Philonthus gemellus vi) Leptacinus parumpunctatus 81 vii) Staphylinus sp. 82 viii) Platyprosopus sp. 82 Sub-family Aleocharinae 83 i) Aleochara clavicornis 84 ii) Aleochara paberula 84 iii) Aleochara sp. 85 iv) Myrmecopora elegans 86 v) Astilbus mixtus 86 Sub-family Tachyporinae 87 i) Tachyporus himalayicus 88 ii) Tachinomorphus ceylonicus 89 vii 4.5 Population of different species collected in different 90 traps 4.6 Cluster Analysis 128 5 DISCUSSION 133 5.1 Staphylinidae biodiversity 133 5.2 Effect of crops on rove beetles 136 5.3 Effect of abiotic factors on rove beetles 138 5.4 Collection methods and their trapping efficiency 139 5.5 Cluster Analysis 139 6 SUMMARY 141 143 LITERATURE CITED viii LIST OF TABLES S. No. Title of the table Page no. Table 1: GPS positions of the selected localities 14 Table 2: Timetable of the studied plots 17 Table 3: Subfamilies, genera and their number of respective species caught in the Punjab 27 Table 4: Temp.(C), R.H & Soil moisture contents (%), # of species and specimens by month and site 31 Table 5a: General sowing and harvesting periods of different crops in the Punjab 32 Table 5: Percentage population of different species in different localities of cropped area during 2008 33 Table 6: Percentage population of different species in different localities of cropped area during 2009 34 Table 7: Percentage population of different species in different localities of forest area during 2008 35 Table 8: Percentage population of different species in different localities of forest area during 2009 36 Table 9: Percentage population of different species in different localities of cropped area during different months of 2008 37 Table 10: Percentage population of different species in different localities of cropped area during different months of 2009 38 Table 11: Percentage population of different species in different localities of forest area during different months of 2008 39 Table 12: Percentage population of different species in different localities of forest area during different months of 2009 40 Table 13: Population of different species in different localities on different crops 2008 41 Table 14: Population of different species in different localities on different ix crops 2009 42 Table 15: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during January-February 2008 45 Table 16: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during March-April 2008 47 Table 17: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during May-June 2008 49 Table 18: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during July-August 2008 51 Table 19: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during September-October 2008 53 Table 20: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during November-December 2008 55 Table 21: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during January-February 2009 57 Table 22: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during March-April 2009 59 Table 23: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during May-June 2009 61 Table 24: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during July-August 2009 63 x Table 25: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index for different Staphylinidae species in different Cropped & Forest areas of Punjab during September-October 2009 65