Water beetles in mountainous regions in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

<jats:p>Inventories provide information on the state of biodiversity at a site or for a geographic region. Species inventories are the basis for systematic study and critical to ecology, biogeography and identification of biological indicators and key species. They also provide key information for assessments of environmental change, for natural resource conservation or recovery of degraded ecosystems. Thus, inventories play a key role in planning strategies for conservation and sustainable use. This study aimed to inventory the fauna of water beetles, larvae and adults, in two mountainous regions in the state of São Paulo, in Serra da Mantiqueira (Parque Estadual de Campos do Jordão and Pindamonhangaba region) and in Serra do Mar (Santa Virgínia and Picinguaba Divisions) as well as to generate information about the habitats used by the different genera recorded. Specimens were collected in lotic and lentic systems, between the years 2005 to 2010. In total 14,492 specimens were collected and 16 families and 50 genera of Coleoptera were identified. This study in mountainous regions showed a significant portion of the faunal composition of South America and the state of São Paulo. The composition of the fauna, in terms of richness and abundance by family, indicated the predominance of Elmidae, followed by Hydrophilidae and Dytiscidae. Despite the diversity found, the results of estimated richness indicated the need for additional sampling effort for both regions, since the curves of estimated richness did not reach an asymptote, suggesting that new species can be found in future surveys.</jats:p>

Effect of land use on mayfly assemblages structure in Neotropical headwater streams

“…Nymphs of the genus Hermanella seem to be most represented in high altitude regions (Raimundi et al 2013), however there is no information available on the others. These result emphasize that the mountainous regions of state of São Paulo harbor a high diversity of aquatic insects, as was previously demonstrated in studies in the Parque Estadual de Campos do Jordão with Trichoptera Froehlich 2009), Ephemeroptera (Siegloch et al 2012) and Coleoptera (Segura et al 2012).…”

Evidence of species sorting driving aquatic beetles associated with woody debris in a transitional region between Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes

“…Specialists also contributed for the assemblage variation between biomes, such as the specificity showed by Stegoelmis for Cerrado streams, as also found by Segura et al (2011) and Lutrochus for Atlantic Forest stream. Some elmids are poorly known regarding their affinity and dependence of woody debris as habitat and feeding source (Segura et al 2012), but our observations during sample processing suggested that Elmidae spB and spC (found exclusively in Cerrado streams) are borers and gougers of woody debris. Altogether, these results are in line with studies showing the importance of organic substrates (specific to each biome) and that colonizers of woody debris are a set of opportunistic to specialist species (Steedman and Anderson 1985;McKie and Cranston 1998;Valente-Neto et al 2015).…”

Diversity and ecological aspects of aquatic insect communities from montane streams in southern Brazil

“…In Brazil, studies on diversity of EPTC were conducted mainly in tropical and subtropical streams, where they are found inhabiting streams in both plateau and slope areas (e.g. Bispo and Oliveira, 2007;Gonçalves and Menezes, 2011;Paciencia et al, 2011;Segura et al, 2012). The most important factors affecting this fauna are stream order, rainfall, altitude and water current (Oliveira et al, 1997;Bispo et al, 2006;Bispo and Oliveira, 2007).…”