Abstract
Abstract The primary resource of temperate forest treeholes is leaf litter, and different insects specialize on particular stages of decay. Helodes pulchella (scirtid beetle) takes part in a processing chain by shredding leaf litter and creating material for other consumers. We hypothesized that variation in scirtid density and resources influences the insect community. To test this, we manipulated scirtid beetle and resource densities in field mesocosms. We used a two-factor design (3 litter levels by 3 scirtid densities), and monitored insect communities from April 2004 to June 2005. We detected no statistically significant effects of scirtids on leaf decay. However, during the first season, species richness was higher in mid-summer in the presence of low scirtid density compared to treatments with high scirtid densities or those with no scirtids. The dominant species was Aedes triseriatus (eastern treehole mosquito) and its abundance was unaffected by either scirtid or leaf litter. However, mean pupal ...
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