Author(s):
Soares, António O. 
; Elias, Rui B. ; Raimundo, Armando
Date: 2003
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/823
Origin: Repositório da Universidade dos Açores
Subject(s): Coccinellidade (Coleoptera); Madeira Archipelago; Species Diversity; Hippodamia variegata
Description
Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Ecology of Aphidophaga: Biology, Ecology and Behaviour of Aphidophagous Insects. We present a list of coccinellids collected in Madeira archipelago and notice the presence of two new species; of Scymnini; Scymnus (Scymnus) abietis (Paykull) and Nephus hiekei Fürsch. We analyse the distribution and abundance at the community level, using the following measures: species richness index, abundance and relative abundance, similarity index, diversity, and evenness. 13 species from 3 families were recorded. Hippodamia variegata was the most abundant one with 29.7 % of the 141 specimens collected. Two main groups of relative abundance were identified. The first group included the 6 most common H. variegata, S. interruptus, C. arcuatus, C. septempunctata, S. levaillanti and R. litura and the second one included S. abietis, L. lophante and R. chrysomeloides. Diversity index values are relatively high. The 6 most common species comprised more than 90 % of the individuals without a very different relative abundance. Many factors other than extinction and immigration could explain the variation of the number of species on islands. The highest number of species collected in Madeira island, compared to Porto Santo, could be related with its higher elevation, soil and substrate types, plant species richness, number of habitat, habitats diversity, structure and heterogeneity of the former.
