Spatial pattern of true bugs (Heteroptera) in heterogeneous grassland — Preliminary results

Torma, A. and Varga, Cs. and Varga, M. (2010) Spatial pattern of true bugs (Heteroptera) in heterogeneous grassland — Preliminary results. Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica, 45 (1). pp. 81-87. ISSN 0238-1249

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Abstract

The present study was carried out at a dune slack meadow near Mórahalom town in the Southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain. The area of the grassland is approximately 840,000 m ² . The vegetation is mosaic-like in accordance with the variable microrelief and water content. The lower part of the grassland consists of various types of saltmarshes and wet meadows and at the upper microrelief, Pannonic sand steppe patches occur. True bug assemblages were sampled at 16 patches using 5×50 sweeps at each sampling site. The sampling was repeated three times in both 2007 and 2008. The area, the perimeter, the shape index of the sampled patches as well as the diversity of the surrounding patches were assessed as “landscape parameters”. The plant species number and diversity of the sampled patches were estimated from the data of 5×5 m coenological quadrats. Altogether 66,087 adult individuals belonging to 153 species were collected. The ordination methods showed that the true bug assemblages of the sampling patches differ from each other in accordance with the vegetation type. These assemblages differed in their species composition and diversity as well as in their assemblage structure. The results suggested that the vegetation type based on plant species composition determined the true bug assemblages.

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