Table Of Content©EntomologicaFennica. 11 October2006
Ground beetle assemblages of dolomitic grasslands in Hungary
CsabaKutasi& Gyfizfi Szél
Kutasi, Cs. & Szél, Gy. 2006: Groundbeetle assemblages ofdolomitic grass-
lands inHungary.—Entomol. Fennica 17: 253—257.
The carabid assemblages of dolomitic grasslands were investigated in the
Transdanubian Mountains in Central Hungary using pitfall trapping between
1988and2005.Atotalof2515indvidualadultcarabids,belongingto65 species
were collected from five localities. The most abundant species were Calathus
ambiguus(24.5%),C. cinctus(16.8%)andC.fusc1pes(8.4%).Rarespecieswere
Amaraproxima,A. sollicita, Cymindisaxillaris, C. variolosa,Licinuscassideus
andMasoreuswetterhallii. TheseasonalactivityofadultCarabushungaricusis
given.
C. Kutasi, DepartmentofZoology, NaturalHistoryMuseum ofBakonyMoun—
tains, H—8420 Zirc, Rakéczi tér 1, Hungary; E—mail.‘ entomologia@bak0ny—
museum.koznet.hu
G. Szél, DepartmentofZoology, HungarianNaturalHistoryMuseum, H—1088
Budapest, Barossu. 13, Hungary;E—mail.‘ [email protected]
Received14December2005, accepted8June2006
1. Introduction acteristic and frequent carabids of dolomitic
slopes of one locality, the Odvas-hegy (Buda
The insect fauna ofthe dolomitic grasslands of Mountains) have beenpublished (Szél & Adam
the southern slopes ofmountains in Hungary is 1992)
important for the conservation of biodiversity, Since there are few papers dealing with the
becausethistypeofhabitatishometonumerous fauna of dolomitic grasslands, the aim of our
rare and/orrelict species. The mostvaluable are studieswastoexplorethegroundbeetlefaunaof
the thermophilous species living inthe Mediter- such grasslands in several areas ofHungary, to
raneanandtheCaucasusareaandatthenorthern investigatethespeciescompositionandthedomi-
andwesternextentofrangeinHungary. nancerelations ofassemblages.
Pitfall trapping was carried out in the
Transdanubian Mountains of Central Hungary.
Former investigations in Buda Mountains were 2. Material and methods
focused on the habitat selection of the ground
beetlesduringdolomitic succession(Baldi 1990, Thesampleswerecollectedwithpitfalltrapsat10
Baldi&Adam1991,Waliczky 1991),whilstear- sites (5 localities, 2 sites at each) of dolomitic
lier investigation in the Bakony Mountains was grasslandsrepresentingthreeregionsofHungary
designedto monitorthe carabidfauna(Kutasi et (BakonyMountains,VértesMountainsandBuda
al. 2000).Therearenocomprehensivedataabout Mountains)between1988and2005.Threelocal-
the species composition of ground beetles of itieswereinvestigatedattheBakonyMountains,
dolomitic grasslandinHungary. The mostchar- Liter,Mogyoros-hegy(47°06’05”N, 18°01’45”
254 Kutasi&Szél ' ENTOMOL. FENNICAVol. 17
Table 1.Carabidcatches, Berger-Parkerdominanceindexvaluesofthecarabidassemblages, standardizedabundance(n/
trap*year),andeightmostabundantspeciesofdolomiticgrasslandsitesin Hungary.Samplessortedaccordingtothreemoun-
tainareas(Bakony,Vértesand Buda)andsampled habitats(Grass=grassland,Steppe=steppemeadow, Grass/mead =
grassland/meadowhabitat).
Bakony Vértes Buda
Mogyorés-hegy Ugri-hegy K'Lilso-hegy Bucka Odvas- Torok-
hegy ugrato
Grass Steppe Grass Steppe Grass Steppe Grass Steppe Grass/ Grass/
mead mead
Sampling period 1997—01 1997—01 1997—01 1997—01 1997—01 1997—01 2003—04 2003—04 1988 2005
No. oftraps 15 15 15 15 15 15 20 8 108 27
No. individuals 174 75 340 202 530 604 65 203 281 41
No. species 18 16 27 26 33 37 13 12 27 7
Berger-Parkerindex 0.21 0.31 0.4 0.18 0.6 0.19 0.55 0.44 0.42 0.39
Standardized
no. individuals 2.32 1 4.53 2.7 7.06 8.05 1.62 12.7 2.6 1.52
Calathusambiguus 17 — 40 2 60 19 4.6 1 0.4 17
Calathuscinctus 18 16 26 16 9.6 12 55 44 — 39
Calathusfuscipes 21 14 6.5 17 0.2 4 23 31 — 26.8
Carabushungaricus 19 31 0.3 — — 5.4 — — 4.3 —
Harpalusanxius — 1.3 3.5 18 7.7 14 3 — — —
Harpalussubcylindricus — — 1.2 8.4 1.3 12 — 4 — —
Licinuscassideus 1.7 — 0.6 — 0.2 — 1.5 — 7.1 —
Zabrusspinipes — 2.7 — — — 0.5 — — 42 —
E),Kiralyszentistvan,Kulsd-hegy(47°05’57”N, numberoftraps). Thetraps (plasticcups of8 cm
18°02’26” E) and Vilonya, Ugri-hegy (47° diameterand 12cmdepth,partlyfilledwith40%
07’47” N, 18°05’17” E). At the Vértes Moun- ethyleneglycol)wereplaced5mfromeachother
tains, Csakberény, Bucka (47°21’04”N, 18°21’ and covered with a square aluminium cover to
30”E)andintheBudaMountains,twolocations protect the trap content fromrain, litter and dis-
at Budaors, Odvas—hegy (47°28’05” N, 18°56’ turbanceby smallvertebrates.
48” E) and Torokugrato (47°27’30” N, 18°55’ The traps were checked and material col-
27”E)werestudied. Themainplantassociations lectedeverytwoweeksbetweenAprilandOcto-
comprised open (Seselz' leucospermo—Festu— ber. The samples from each trap were handled
cetum pallentis) or closed (Festuco pallenti— separately, storedat—18°C, sortedandidentified
Brometum pannonici) dolomitic grassland, and by the authors using Hfirka’s (1996) keys. The
dolomitic steppe meadow (Chrysopogono— materialisdepositedinthecollectionsoftheNat-
Caricetumhumilis). ural History Museum of Bakony Mountains
Thecircumstancesandintensityofcollecting (Zirc, Hungary) and of the Hungarian Natural
were different inthethree regions. A total of30 HistoryMuseum(Budapest).
pitfalltrapswereusedateach site in 1997—2001 Comparisonofthecarabidassemblagesofthe
at the Bakony Mountains, 28 pitfall traps in investigated localities was made by hierarchical
2003—2004 at the Vértes Mountains, 108 pitfall clustering(Single-link)oftheJaccardIndex.Cal-
traps in 1988, and27 pitfall traps in 2005 atthe culations were made by the Syntax 2000 com-
BudaMountainsThenumberofthetrapswas set puter package (Podani 1997). The chorological
accordingtothelengthofthestudyperiodto en- types were used according to Hfirka (1996) and
sure the maximum number ofspecies from the the ecologicalcharacteristicswere adoptedfrom
given area(the shortertheperiod, thehigherthe Kirschenhofer(1989).
{CAVOL 17 a CarabidsOfHungariandOZOMiZ‘iCgraSSiandS 255
(1.55-
(1.411'-
9.452
Atotal 0f2515 individualsbelongingto 65 spe- 13.51):
cieswerecollected.ThepercentageofPalaearctic (1.55"
and Palaearctic specieswasrelativelyhigh 11.60;
(41.5%). The sampled species included 34 Similarity 11.65-
xerophflic (52.3%), 18 (18.5%), 11.711-
and8 ophflic(12.3%)species.Theassemm 00..87T5)-;
blagecomprised26% stenotopic species.
0.85;
Thebulkofthespeciesbelongedtothegenera 0.90.3
Harpahzs (l4) andAmara (10). The most abunw 11.95:
dant species were Caiaz‘has ambiguus (24.5%), 1.01)-
C. CinCMS (17%) and C.fasapes (8.7%). Other Budai—hg. Vértes Bakony‘il. Bakony3. Bakony2.
dominant species were-:— Cambus hangaricus, Fig. 1.. Dendrogramofsimilarity, basedontheJaccard
Harpaias anxius, H. subcylindricas and Zabms index,ofcarabldassemblagesindolomiticgrassland
spinzpes. Thespeciesnumbercollectedintheinn Sites.Abbreviations: Budaiuhg: Budaérs,Vérles:
dividualdolomiticgrasslandlocationsvariedbe“ Csékberény, Bakony’l: Kirélyszentlstvén, BakonyZ:
tween 7 and 37, While the abundance of the Liter, BakcnyB:Vllonya.
groundbeetles was low. The averagenumberof
individualspertrap ’3‘ yearvariedbetween 1 and ofAugusttotheendofOctober, isthemainone.
12.7(Table l).Thedominantspeciesofthestudy Thehighestnumber ofspecimens was observed
sites arealsopresentedinTable l. inthe second.halfofSeptember.
The assemblages of the different localities
were comparedusing the Jaccard index (Fig 1).
The hierarchical classification. showed that the
carabids were divided into distinct regions. Ac»-
cordingtotheseresults,themostfrequentspecies The examinations were carried out in ten
of the Bakony Mountains were Caiaihus amn- dolomitic grasslands in five localities represent-
bigaas, C. CincmsandHarpaiusanxms. C. cine-- ingthemostextensivedolomiticregionsofHun-
msandC.fusczpeswerethemostfrequentspecies gary (Bakony, Vértes and B ountains). it
at the Vértes ountains, While C. cincms and can be concluded that the number ofspecimens
Zabmsspimjpesweremostabundantatthe B andspeciesofcarabidasssemblagesareverylow
ountains.
Thespeciessimilarityofcarabidassemblages
inthe differentregionswas low, withonly eight
._ mm Liter.grasaland
species occurring in all localities: Calathus
—m-Liter.Steppemeadow
ambiguus, C. Cincms, Cfusczpes, Hay/“painspu- individuaie 1:3 __ mdmldilnnya.Steppemeadow
milas, H. mabah’, H. rubmpes, H. tardus and
Licmus cassideus. A total of23 carabid species
(35.4%) occurredonlyinonelocality. ’ spe- {if EC!
cies found in the study area included Amara Number
proxima, A. SOUicz’m, Cymmdis axfllaris, C. van
riaiasa,Licmus caSSideuS and wetter“
:3» 2%
hailii. Cambus hangaricus is one ofthe rarest i a t a
species in and seasonal dynamics of [35.35]. [18.15. [37.15. Dram. L7o[2i"‘rs"!;.; L3P3?! 113.15. 18311
this species has not previously been published Date
(Turin 63" ad. 2003; Fig 2). C. hangaricas has a Fig.2.SeasonalfluctuationsofCarabushungaricusin
predominantly autu activity, although it can dolomiticgrasslandsofBakony [1997——
curs in dolomitic grasslands fromthe begiing 2001; 15pitfalltraps(total numberofC. hungericus
oflune.Thesecondpeakofactivity,fromtheend catchesperdates,allyearsandtrapssummed);
256 Kutasi&Szél ' ENTOMOL. FENNICAVol. 17
in these habitats, and contains several rare spe- Calathusambiguusisthequalitativeindicatorof
cies. sandy soil type in Germany (Muller-Motzfeld
Waliczky(1991)found37groundbeetlespe- 1989), while C.fuscz'pes is significantly associ-
cies fromtheBudaMountains (Nagykovacsi) in ated with sandy soil in arable fields (Irmler,
dolomitic rock swards andturkey oakforest. Of 2003).Inadditiontothetwodominantspecies(C.
these,21 specieswerealsofoundbyus(theseare ambiguusandC.fuselpes),almosthalfofthecol-
members of species communities of dry, open lected species are frequent in agricultural areas,
steppes); theremaining 16belongto forestcom- includingAgonum dorsale,Amara aenea,A.fa—
munities. From the Bakony Mountains, nearby miliaris,Brachinusexplodens, Calathuserratus,
the area investigatedby us, Kutasi (1998) men- Harpalus distinguendus, H. griseus, H. rufipes,
tions 14 carabid species, ofwhich allbutPrero— H.serrl'pes,H.smaragdinusandTrechusquadri—
stichus incommoduswere found in our study. A striatus(Horvatovich&Szarukan1986,Kutasiet
numberofspeciesofthedolomiticregionsdooc- al. 2004).Thesamephenomenonhasearlierbeen
cur in limestone rock sward, too (Horvatovich foundinlimestonerockswardandtheneighbour-
1989,2000).Thefaunisticoverlapwiththesandy ingagriculturalfields(Horvatovich1989,2000).
grasslands is also considerable: several species The carabid communities of the Hungarian
occurinboth areas. The faunistic similarity is at dolomitic steppes show similarity to those of
leastpartly due to the goodheat conductivity of othervegetation-poor,bareareas. Theoccurence
theground. of many thermophilous and xerotherm species
Somerare species, suchasLicinus cassideus canbeexplainedbythegoodheatconductivityof
andAmarasollicita,alsooccurinlimestonerock the soil. Although a significant proportion of
swards (Horvatovich 1989, 2000), while Cara— these species also occurs in agricultural/culti-
bus hangaricus, L. cassideus, Masoreus wet— vated areas, we found several rarities with high
terhalll'l'andZabrusSpim'pes aretypical inhabit- protectionvalue. InHungary, thedolomiticrock
ants ofthe sandyregions oftheGreatHungarian swards are endangeredby many activities, such
Plain (Adam & Merkl 1986). These thermo- asmining,illegaltrashdepositsandmotorsports.
philous species are distributed mainly in the Ourworkunderlines thattheprotection ofthese
southernpartofEurope, inAsiaMinorand/orin habitats is also important for entomological rea-
NorthAfrica.Carabushangaricus,whichproved sons.
a dominant species in some samples, is strictly
protectedinHungarysince2001 andaspeciesof Ackowlea’gements.ThisresearchwassupportedbytheNa—
European community interest within Natura tional R&D Programme: “The origin and genesis ofthe
faunaoftheCarpathianBasin: diversity,biogeographical
2000.
hotspots and nature conservation significance”, contract
Of the species we classified as common, no:3B023—04.WethanktwoanonymousreviewersandG.
CalathusfusczpesandZabrusSpim'peswerealso Loveiforcommentsonanearlierverisonofthispaper.
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