Insect biodiversity of the Algodones Dunes of California.

Lynn Kimsey,Thomas Zavortink,Robert Kimsey,Steven Heydon

doi:10.3897/bdj.5.e21715

Abstract

Over a nine year period beginning in 2007 we surveyed the insects of the Algodones Dunes, Imperial Count, California, as part of a study undertaken for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. In a series of 22 collecting trips ranging in duration from 2 to 8 days we thus far have accumulated records of 1,840 species, 21 orders and 244 families from the dunes. Hymenoptera constituted the most diverse order, comprising about 45% of all the species recovered. Insect diversity and abundance peaked during the hottest part of the year between the months of May and September. Life history traits of the insects sampled included herbivores (29.6%), parasitoids (28.7%), predators (18.1%), pollen/nectar feeders (10.9%), detritivores (6.2%) and scavengers (2.4%). Seventy-nine or 4% of the insect species collected in the dunes have been solely recorded from there, and 3% of the species almost certainly derive from adjacent aquatic habitats or agricultural ecosystems, as their life histories could not be completed in Algodones Dunes habitat. The insect fauna of the Algodones Dunes is unexpectedly rich and diverse.

Highlights

The overall invertebrate biodiversity of any region in North America remains very poorly studied, and the proportional representation of life history traits of the most abundant group, insects, seems largely unknown
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park All Taxa Biological Inventory (Sharkey 2001) constitutes the most detailed such study, but most of the insect species level information in that study derived from target taxa, such as crane flies (Peterson et al 2005) or ants (Lessard et al 2007)
California encompasses a great diversity of climates, vegetation types, and invasive species, as well as direct and indirect human impacts, all of which affect insect diversity

Summary

Introduction

The overall invertebrate biodiversity of any region in North America remains very poorly studied, and the proportional representation of life history traits of the most abundant group, insects, seems largely unknown. Crowds on winter holiday weekends may approach 150,000 people The traffic from these vehicles has largely denuded the open sand habitats south of Highway 78. During the first year of the study, we repeatedly sampled five sites for five consecutive days during different seasons of the year for a seasonal faunal comparison These sites were located in the three major vegetation types found on the dunes, psammophytic scrub, creosote bush scrub and microphyll woodland. If the geographic coordinates of all 383 collections we made are rounded to two decimal places, the collections are grouped into 103 rectangular areas approximately 935 m wide (the east-west direction) and 1109 m high (north-south direction). Depending upon the degree of precision desired, the number of different collecting localities or sites can be considered to be 103 or 208

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