Diversity and composition of island insects of the Bejaia region (Algeria).

Abstract

The study was conducted on four islands located west of Bejaia (north-eastern Algeria) to collect baseline information about diversity and composition of insects. Data were collected during summer and spring of 2015 using traps, sweep nets and the Japanese umbrella sampling methods. A total of 1691 individuals belonging to 112 species were collected. Totals of 72, 56, 41 and 34 species were recorded in Pisans Island, El Euch Island, Sahel Islet and Ail Islet, respectively. Of the 1,691 individuals recorded, 39.85 %, 30.51 %, 18.03 % and 11.59 % were recorded in Pisans Island, El Euch Island, Sahel islet and Ail islet, respectively. Shannon-weaver index ranged from 2.96 to 3.34 and Equitability between 0.77 and 0.87. The composition of the insect community differed between sampled islands (NMDS, Stress =. 0.013). Eleven (11) insect species composed over 50 % of dissimilarity between islands. Two species (Cassida viridis (L.) and Pheidole pallidula (Nyl.) accounted for more than 5% of the diversity on all islands. Sorensen's similarity coefficient showed that Pisans and El Euch islands have the highest similarity (45.37 %), while the lowest similarity was recorded between Pisans Island and Sahel Islet (15.53 %).