Diversidade de Dytiscidae (Coleoptera) em áreas úmidas do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Beetles represented the largest group of animais but end up neglected in ecological studies and much of its wildlife has not described, mainly in tropical areas of great diversity. Dytiscidae, larger family of water beetles, prefers lentic environments, which can be divided according to their hydroperiod in permanent and periodic. The distribution of these ditiscidae were tested in this study in 104 wetlands of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) to detect differences in the composition of each hydroperiod, also serving as a survey of taxa occurring. Were sampled 1905 specimens from 21 genera with the first record in the state of genera Platynectes, Uvarus and Pachydrus. Multivariate Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) found that only biome and hydroperiod influenced the fauna. The differencce of the beta diversity among hydroperiods was significant, showing that varied in composition with each other, and communities in more homogeneous perennial areas than those found in the periodic areas. Despite the difference of the faunal composition richness showed similar values when standardized by rarefaction curve and each hydroperiod presented exclusive taxa.