Abstract
The present study treated the taxonomic diversity of the cereal leaf beetle (Oulema spp.) community subservient to several cereal fields (barley, durum wheat and oats) in Eastern Algeria. From April to June, which is the appearance period of these insects, the leaf beetle fauna was weekly sampled using two trapping techniques: entomological net and sight hunting method. Spatiotemporal alpha and beta diversity of this community were evaluated by several ecological indices: Shannon index, Simpson index and equitability. The multivariate statistic test (GLM) was used to assess the variation of the different diversity parameters. Catches totaled 1144 individuals belonging to the genus Oulema and four species: Oulema melanopus, Oulema cyanella, Oulema duftscmidi and Oulema gallaeciana. The highest abundance of the leaf beetles was recorded in oats with 569 individuals (49.73%), followed by barley (390 individuals, 34.09%) and durum wheat (185 individuals, 16.17%), whereas the most speciose field was barley (4 species), followed by oats (3 species) and durum wheat (2 species). The most abundant species was O. melanopus with 746 individuals (65.20% of the total). The spectrum of occurrence ranked constant species first, followed by common and very accidental species. GLMs demonstrated that diversity of cereal leaf beetles Oulema spp is highly related to cereal field type.
Highlights
Often called leaf beetles and with about 19 subfamilies and 37 000 known species, Chrysomelidae is considered as a very diverse family among insects that feed on plants (Ekiz et al, 2013)
In Algeria, products of cereals have an important position in food system and in economy of the country; this characteristic is clearly perceived through all the phases of the sector (Djermoun, 2009)
The total dataset consisted of 1144 individuals, belonging to one genus Oulema and four species: Oulema melanopus (Linné, 1758), Oulema cyanella (Linné, 1758), Oulema duftscmidi (Redtenbacher, 1874) and Oulema gallaeciana (Heyden, 1870)
Summary
Often called leaf beetles and with about 19 subfamilies and 37 000 known species, Chrysomelidae is considered as a very diverse family among insects that feed on plants (Ekiz et al, 2013). According to Bezdĕk and Schmitt (2017), the subfamily Criocerinae contains 1500 species devided into 22 genera in the world, of which about 200 are found in the Palaearctic countries. The larger part of the species lives in subtropical and tropical regions, and belongs to five genera: Crioceris, Lilioceris, Lema, Oulema, and Neolema (Matsumura et al, 2014). The genus Oulema comprises 800 descriped species, a variety of them are serious cereal pests like O. gallaeciana (Ulrich et al, 2004) and O. melanopus, which is the most dangerous (Vencl and Leschen, 2014). The great fluctuation of yields and production of cereals are in large proportion the result of abiotic constraints such as thermal and water stress (Derbal et al, 2015), and biotics such as pests (Belahcene et al, 2015)
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