ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Species Composition and Abundance
of Click-Beetles (Coleoptera, Elateridae)
in Agrobiocenozes in Southern Lithuania
Povilas Mulerčikas1, Vytautas Tamutis1, 2, Sonata Kazlauskaitė1
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1Department of Biology and Plant Protection, Lithuanian University of Agriculture,
Studentų 11, Akademija, Kaunas distr., LT-53361, Lithuania
2Kaunas T. Ivanauskas zoological museum, Laisvės al. 106, LT-44253 Kaunas, Lithuania
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2012;21(2):425-433
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Click-beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) species composition and abundance in agrobiocenozes were examined.
The research was carried out in four locations in southern Lithuania with different agrobiocenozes and
soil types. In total 687 imago click-beetle specimens were caught belonging to 13 species and 10 genera. The
most numerous species detected were Selatosomus aeneus (Linnaues, 1758), Agriotes lineatus (Linnaues,
1767), Agriotes obscurus (Linnaues, 1758), and Negastrius pulchellus (Linnaues, 1758). Zorochros dermestoides
(Herbst, 1806) was recorded for the first time for Lithuanian fauna.
The number of specimens entering the traps declined steadily depending on soil granulometric structure.
It has been observed to be higher in lighter soils and lower toward heavier soil types. The least number of clickbeetle
specimens was trapped in the agrobiocenozes with the intensively cultivated land over all study areas
except sandy soils. This infers that intensive tillage may affect the abundance of click-beetles in agrobiocenozes.
The summary of research data clearly indicates that the highest abundance of click-beetles was
detected in the seminatural meadow with light granulometric structure soil.