TRUE BUGS (HEMIPTERA: HETEROPTERA) OF NON-FLOODPLAINWASTELAND MEADOWS OF BEREZINSKY BIOSPHERE RESERVE

Abstract

The article contains an analysis of data on the structure of Hemiptera: Heteroptera communities living in the non-floodplain wasteland meadows of the Sedo-Scleranthion Br.-Bl. et Richard 1950 of the Sedo-Scleranthetea Br.-Bl. 1955 class in Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve.

128 species of true bugs from 24 families were recorded; representatives of Miridae family turned out to dominate in the number of species. Europiella albipennis (Fallen, 1829), Pionosomus opacellus (Horváth, 1895), Tropidophlebia costalis (Herrich-Schaeffer, 1850) and Phimodera humeralis (Dalman, 1823) are new to the fauna of the reserve, while Europiella albipennis has not previously been reported for the entire territory of Belarus. Previous indications of Galeatus spinifrons (Fallén, 1807) on the territory of Belarus should (until confirmation of its presence in local fauna) be attributed to the Galeatus affinis (Herrich-Schaeffer, 1835) species.

An analysis of biodiversity and similarity indicators for Heteroptera complexes in the wasteland meadows of the reserve was carried out. For the communities of the control area near Brody village and an overgrown area near Domzheritsy village, with a relatively high species diversity index, the evenness values turned out to be lower; and for the first mentioned area the minimum was 2.9, which indicates some instability of the researched communities.

In general, the Heteroptera of non-floodplain wasteland meadows has a relatively high uniqueness of local faunas; for two thirds of the compared pairs, the commonality index values were less than 0.5.

One of the main threat factors for entomological communities of wasteland meadows, in addition to the natural secondary succession of meadow vegetation, is also anthropogenic impact, since the vast majority of preserved wasteland meadows are located within localities or in their closest vicinities. People affect natural complexes through urbanization, burning waste, organization of unauthorized landfills, quarries and roads, and collecting wild plants.