The effect of land use on the community structure distribution and abundance of ground beetles (insecta: coleoptera) in a guinea savanna in Nigeria

Abstract

A study was carried out to investigate the ground beetles of four habitats - cultivated farmland, Ifallow plot, a marshy plot and a secondary regrowth forest at the permanent site of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria for a twelve-month period using the pitfall technique. Species of Coleoptera obtained from the four plots include Macrocheilus labrosus, Hyparpalus sp., Carpophilus fumatus (Boh.), Podagrica uniforma (Jac.), Tetragonothorax sp., Chlaenius sp., Pheropsophus parallus (Dej.), Silidus apicalis (Waterh), Tenebroides mauritanicus (L), Heteroderes sp., Heterorynchus licas (Klug.) and Mylabris sp., Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) indicate that the abundance of beetles wee significantly different in the cultivated farmland (F = 6.062). The result of Fisher’s Least Significance Difference (F-LSD) test shows that the pitfall catches of beetles from the four sampling sites were also significantly different. The heterogeneity of the coleopteran species at the cultivated plot was traced to cultivation. The role of certain coleopteran families as faunal indicators was highlighted. Other factors, which influenced the Coleopteran species at the four plots, were also discussed.