Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in sugar beet fields as the base for conservation biological control

Abstract: The fauna and abundance of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in arable crops can be an indicator of influence of different agricultural measures on biodiversity. The aim of our study was to determine ground beetle fauna abundance and frequency in two fields with different herbicide and insecticide application practice, and to determine differences in total number of species and individuals, collected with two capturing methods. The study was conducted in 2012 in the eastern part of Croatia (County of Vukovar-Srijem). Beetles were collected in a period of twenty-one weeks (April- September) by setting four modified pitfall traps aimed to collect above ground fauna and four probes (WB PROBE II® Trap, Trece inc.) aimed to collect endogeic fauna in each field. Nine different species and eight genera were identified in the study. Most abundant were Pseudoophonus rufipes (De Geer 1774) and Bembidion sp. (Latreille 1802). Both are classified as eudominant. The most frequent species was P. rufipes classified as constant (71.42%) and the most frequent genus was Bembidion sp. (38.04%) classified as accessory. There was no significant difference between fields among total number of established species and/or genus no matter if they were captured by pitfall trap or probe. Significantly more individuals were captured in pitfall traps on the field No. 1 (33.3) than on the field No. 2 (8.8), respectively. Opposite, significantly fewer individuals were captured with probe on the Field No. 1 (0.5) than on the field No. 2 (6.6), respectively.