Morphological variability of Bembidion minimum (Coleoptera, Carabidae) populations under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors

Abstract

Morphological variability is the result of interaction between genetic diversity of the population and environmental selection. Despite the large number of studies of morphological variability of ground beetles, there is very little research dedicated to influence of environmental factors on it. This article discusses the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors on the variability of Bembidion minimum (Fabricius, 1792). B. minimum is a West Palearctic species which is distributed in North Africa, Europe, Western Asia. It is a macropterous species that lives in humid biotopes along the shores of seas, rivers and standing water bodies. 410 specimens were collected from 12 ecosystems differing by plant cover, degree of litter development, mechanical composition of the soil, mineralization and acidity of soil solution, type and intensity of anthropogenic impact. 13 linear characteristics, one angular characteristic, density of elytra puncturing and contrast of spots on the beetles’ elytra were measured. Additionally 6 morphometric indices were calculated. More than a third of the variability of imagoes in the studied populations was found to be determined by the general body size. Sexual dimorphism was observed on all linear parameters and most morphometric indices. Females do not differ from males in the back angles of the prothorax. Natural and anthropogenic factors to a greater or lesser degree were shown to affect the morphological variability of B. minimum: soil acidity and mineralization have the greatest impact. The soil acidity causes significant variability of most linear parameters; mineralization – body length, head length, prothorax length and width, elytra width. Plant cover and mechanical composition of the soil have a slight impact on imago morphology. The type and structure of vegetation significantly affect head width, prothorax length and width, and the mechanical composition of the soil – body length and head length. Degree of litter development does not cause significant changes in the linear dimensions of beetles. With thickening of the litter the posterior spots on the elytra become brighter, they have sharper contours, and density of elytra puncturing also changes. The mean value of the back angles is affected by the herb layer of meadow vegetation, soil mineralization and acidity. The variability of morphometric indexes under the influence of natural factors was found to be lower than variability of linear characteristics. The recreational load and cattle grazing cause similar changes in linear measurements and morphometric indexes of B. minimum. With escalation of these factors, the body length, length and width of elytra of both females and males decrease. Assessing the natural morphological variability of populations in ecosystems whose environmental factors are within extreme and sub-extreme values for a given population is a promising direction of research in modern ecology.

Morphological variability ofBembidion varium(Coleoptera, Carabidae) in gradient of soil salinity

“…However, the influence of other equally important environmental factors (food availability during the larval stage, rivalry, infectious disease and parasites, temperature and mechanical composition of soil and anthropogenic factors) is not excluded. The variability of these linear characteristics and morphometric indices in gradient of soil salinity was previously described by us for B. minimum (Komlyk and Brygadyrenko, 2019b). Changes in the remaining body parameters are not significant, which makes them useless for biological indication of the habitat conditions of B. varium.…”

“…Environmental stress can lead to a decrease in metabolic rate, which can be reflected in increased variability of morphological characters (Elek et al, 2014). At present, it remains unclear at what stage of ontogenesis the influence of environmental factors is the most significant and which of these factors are decisive at a particular case (Komlyk and Brygadyrenko, 2019b). It is assumed that a change in even one environmental factor is the cause of interpopulation morphological differences in beetles (Palmer, 2002).…”

“…The level of soil salinity affects the duration of developmental stages and phenotypic plasticity of insects (Clark et al, 2004), as well as the process of laying eggs (Spomer et al, 2015). We previously examined the effect of soil salinity on Bembidion minimum (Fabricius, 1792) (Komlyk and Brygadyrenko, 2019b). In this article we want to consider in more detail the effect of soil salinization on the morphological variability of another species of the same subgenus -B.…”

Ecological-faunistic analysis of ground beetles and tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Cicindelidae) of metropolises of Ukraine

“…Cities, especially large ones (metropolises) are a quite specific environment for many insects which inhabit original anthropogenic habitatsurbocenoses, which according to a number of parameters significantly differ from natural biotopes. The survey of the entomofauna of urbocenoses allows us to understand the peculiarities of its formation, role and adaptive abilities of insects in the conditions of an urban environment, and also perform their ecological and bioidentificational evaluation (Sus-tek, 1987;Magura et al, 2008;Komlyk & Brygadyrenko, 2019. Among insects, within the largest order of beetles (Coleoptera), one of the dominating groups in the terrestrial ecosystems is caraboid beetles (ground beetles -Carabidae and tiger beetles -Cicindelidae).…”

Influence of heavy metals on hematologic parameters, body weight gain and organ weight in rats

“…Heavy metals are priority pollutants of atmospheric air, reservoir water and soil globally and regionally. Due to their high migratory capacity, tendency to bioaccumulation and polytropicity, metals pose a risk to humans not only by direct action but also by adversely affecting the hygienic performance of environmental objects (Khariv et al, 2016;Vishchur et al, 2016;Kozak & Brygadyrenko, 2018;Vishchur et al, 2019;Komlyk & Brygadyrenko, 2019;Avtaeva et al, 2019). A mixture of toxic substances that can act on living organisms both independently of one another and interact, can affect the degree of toxic effect of individual substances.…”