| Abstrakt: |
Insects are one of the most important biomass components in a forest ecosystem and estimating their species richness can provide a suitable perspective for biodiversity assesments. The present study compares three methods of collecting some beetles in beech forest in Golestan Province of northern Iran. For this purpose, 12 plots were selected, and besides direct sampling, in each of them, one window and two pitfall traps were installed. Based on the results, a total of 226 species belonging to 3341 specimens were collected, of which 635 specimens with direct sampling, 694 specimens by the pitfall traps and 2012 specimens by the window traps were collected. Species richness in the window traps increased at a higher rate in comparison to the other methods. The results of non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) showed that the species composition in each sampling method is significantly different, so that out of the total of 226 identified species, 22 species were common in the three sampling methods but 93, 39 and 23 species were caught only in the window trap, pitfall trap and direct sampling, respectively. In this study, an undescribed species of Scraptia (family Scraptiidae) was collected by window traps. Additionally, the indicator species of pitfall traps, direct sampling and window traps with highest index value of 0.7544, 0.5000, and 0.7500 were Geotrupes spiniger (Scarabaeidae), Uleiota planata (Silvanidae) and Megathous menentriesi (Elateridae), respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
