Consortial Associations of Phytophagous Beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomeloidea, Curculionoidea) with Plants on the Unique Sterlitamak Shikhans

Abstract

This paper summarizes the available data on the host plant associations of beetles of the superfamilies Chrysomeloidea and Curculionoidea on three unique natural objects, relict mountains (shikhans) composed of organogenic limestones and located near Sterlitamak in Bashkortostan. A total of 427 species from 9 families have been recorded on these mountains, this number comprising 35.5% of the total fauna of phytophagous beetles in the foreststeppe of the eastern Russian Plain and the Cis-Urals. In particular, 341 species of phytophagous beetles have been found on Tratau, 281 species on Kushtau, and 276 species on Yuraktau. Trophically specialized beetles (368 species, or 87% of the fauna) were found on 232 plant species from 40 families; of these, 213 monophagous or narrowly oligophagous species were found on 141 plant species from 35 families. Only polyphagous (generalist) herbivores were found on plants of 5 more families. The vast majority (75%) of the oligo- and monophagous beetle species are associated with host plants from 8 families, and half of them (49.7%) are associated with those from 3 families: Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Brassicaceae. The beetle complexes associated with some plants on the shikhans are described in detail. The consortia of many rare and relict plants include not only common polyphagous beetles but also specialized herbivores (regional monophages or narrow oligophages), some of them living there in isolated parts of their disjunctive ranges or on the periphery of their distribution. The reviewed data indicate high specificity of the biotic complexes of the shikhans, emphasizing the uniqueness of these natural objects and the need for their preservation.