Litter macro-fauna in two systems with different land use and husbandry in Cuba

Resumen

Abundance, richness and composition of the community of the litter macro-fauna were preliminarily characterized, with emphasis on the Coleoptera order, in an agro-forested system with a silvopastoral management and association of the tree leguminous Leucaena leucocephala and the grass Megathyrsus maximus, and in another system of grassland, only with M. maximus.Both were located in San Jos? de las Lajas, Mayabeque province. The study was carried out during the rainy periods of 2009 and 2010, in June and October, respectively. The epigeous macro-fauna was collected with pitfall traps. Eight traps were examined per system during the first sampling and 16 during the second. Curves of richness and curves of range/abundance were built for data processing. Two indexes of similarity were calculated. A total of 7,818 macro- invertebrates belonging to 20 orders were collected from the litter. From them, 321 were adult Coleopterans, grouped into 18 families and 33 morpho-species. The macro-fauna had higher values of richness of orders and abundance in the silvopastoral system of leucaena, mainly in October, 2010. The predominant orders, in both systems and moments of study, were Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. From the last one, the Formicidae family was mainly the predominant. The analysis of the Coleoptera order, at the level of morpho-species, showed higher richness and abundance in the silvopastoral system of leucaena, and the dominant morpho-specie, in both systems, was Scolytidae sp. 1.
Key words: macro-invertebrates, epigeous, Coleoptera, pitfall traps