Species Composition, Abundance and Distribution of Seawater Bugs (Order Hemiptera: Class Insecta) in Badian, Cebu, Philippines

Abstract

The presence of seawater bugs in the coastal area is an indicator of good water quality and stable mangrove habitat. As energy source of other organisms, their role in the food chain (Chen et al., 2005) makes them important in the marine ecosystem. This study was conducted in order to know the species occurrence, abundance and distribution and their relationships with the physicochemical parameters such as light, humidity, temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate that would affect their population to fluctuate or change. In the sampling sites, a quadrat sampling method was used for collections and gathering of data. Results indicated that 824 adult bugs composed of 4 Families, 8 Genera and 13 Species were found. The species were Halobates calyptus, Halobates hayanus, Halobates proavus, Pseudohalobates inobonto and Stenobates sangihi of the Family Gerridae; Haloveloides femoralis, Halovelia esakii, Halovelia malaya, Halovelia bergrothii, Xenobates sp. 1 and Xenobates sp. 2 of the Family Veliidae; Hermatobates marcheii of the Family Hermatobatidae and Corallocoris marksae of the Family Omaniidae. The most abundant was H. femoralis and the species were not associated each other and showed clumped pattern of distribution. Pearson's r- correlation coefficient showed that the effect of light, temperature, dissolved oxygen and phosphate level had a strong relationship with the abundance and distribution of bugs. This means that the higher the relative humidity, temperature, dissolved oxygen and phosphate concentration the higher was the number of bugs. The lower the pH, salinity, nitrate and nitrite the higher the number of seawater bugs. However, the mangrove forest in Badian is still stable.