Journal of Environmental Biology
March, 2008

© Triveni Enterprises, Lucknow (India) J. Environ. Biol.
ISSN : 0254-8704 29(2), 263-266 (2008)
http : //www.geocities.com/j_environ_biol/ j_environ_biol@yahoo.com
Rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) collected during the long term
ecological research in a Hungarian oak forest
Adalbert Balog*1, 2, Viktor Marko2 and Laszlo Adam3
1Department of Horticultural Science, Faculty of Technical and Human Science, Sapientia Hungarian University
of Transylvania, 1/C Sighisoara st., 540485, Tg-Mures, Romania
2Department of Entomology, Faculty of Horticultural Science, Corvinus University, Budapest, 1118
Budapest, 29-43 Villanyi st., A/II, Hungary
31098, Aranyvirag setany, 7/I. Budapest, Hungary
(Received: February 21, 2007 ; Revised received: July 17, 2007 ; Accepted: August 06, 2007 )
Abstract: A long term ecological research was carried out in a Hungarian oak forest, in “Bükk” National Park starting with 1972. During the faunistical studies
3,602 insect species and more than 200,000 individuals were collected. The dominant orders were Coleoptera (1,051 species), Lepidoptera (803 species),
Hymenoptera (470 species) and Diptera (400 species). The relative species abundance (RSA) for all insects collected in all years of sampling period suggests
a rather J shape curve than a not clear scaling property. This means that we were able to identify almost three quarters of the insect species from one ha
European oak forest during the survey (from 1987 to 2003), and two third of the staphylinides expected. Considering the staphylinid fauna a total number of
160 species and 4,022 individuals were collected. The most widely occurring species in dominance order were: Ocypus biharicus, Pseudocypus mus, Atheta
gagatina, Philonthus quisquiliarius, Oxypoda acuminate, Platydracus chalcocephalus, Atheta crassicornis, Latrimaeum atrocephalum, Haploglossa puncticollis,
Philonthus succicola and Anotylus mutator. The pooled value of alpha diversity was 1.51. The Shannon-Weiner Index (H`) was relatively high (3.29) in
comparison with other studies.
Key words: Staphylinidae, Species abundance, Diversity, Activity, Density
PDF of full length paper is available with author (*balogadalbert2002@yahoo.co.uk)
Introduction
Pál Jakucs established the “Síkfokut Project” in 1972 as a
model area for the typical forest community of sessile oak and turkey
oak. Currently an area of 64 hectares is under protection and part of
“Bükk” National Park. The long-term research can be divided into
three main phases.
In 1972-1979 the research was connected with the IBP and
MAB international programs and concentrated on the structure,
production and function of the ecosystem. The results were summarized
in “Ecology of an oak Forest in Hungary” (Jakucs, 1985).
In the second phase of the research (1979-90) a new type
of forest decay received a lot of attention. Beginning with 1979-80
until present, a large-scale decline of Quercus petraea appeared,
with serious consequences for the structure of the shrub and herb
layer. Research involved studies on the potential causes of the
sessile oak decline (climate change, acid rain, soil changes, toxic
elements such as Aluminium ions, mycorrhiza, pathogenic
microorganisms: Ceratocystis sp and Armillaria mellea) (White, 1955;
Redfern, 1973; Igmándi et al., 1986; Turna, 2006).
In the third phase, studies on the ecological state and function
of the declining forest were carried out, as well as continuous
monitoring of the background environmental factors. The main
emphasis is on the dynamics and structure of litter layers, the
ecophysiology of declining oak trees, the behaviour of dominant
plant species in canopy gaps and ecotones, the dominance pattern
and the role of phytophagous and predacious insects, litter
decomposition and the role of soil micro-organisms. There are efforts
to collect information on the changes in diversity of the flora and
fauna (Jakucs, 1983; Aselman and Jakucs, 1988; Magurran et al.,
2003; McGill, 2003; Néda et al., 2005; Norris, 2003; Ashesh and
Chauhan, 2006; Pueyo, 2006; Tripathi, 2006; Avgm, 2006).
In this paper apart from the general results, we focus on the
diversity and activity-density of rove beetles (Coleoptera:
Staphylinidae). Staphyilinidae is one of the richest families of
Coleoptera with species that are mostly predacious. More than 45,000
species are known worldwide and probably over 75% of tropical
species are still undescribed (Howard et al., 1998): 1,500-1,700
species were considered from central Europe. However it is still little
known about the staphylinid fauna in pine forest and in sub-alpine
region (Zerche, 1976).
Materials and Methods
The studied one hectare oak forest is situated in medium
high mountain areas in north-east Hungary in “Bükk” National Park.
Vertical light traps were used to collect insects at three different levels:
soil level, canopy level (25 m from soil) and above canopy level (35
m from soil) in 1987, 1988, 1989, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Pitfall
traps (300 cm³ in size, 8 cm in diameter, half-filled with ethylene

Journal of Environmental Biology
March, 2008

Fig. 2: Relative species abundance for rove beetles (Coleoptera:
Staphylinidae) computed from one hectare sampling site in “Bükk” National
Park oak forest. The dashed line indicates the power-law behaviour with
exponent -1
Fig. 1: Results for the relative species abundance for all insects collected
during the “Bükk” National Park oak forest census. The dashed line indicates
the power-law behaviour with exponent -1
glycol 30% solution) were used to sample the soil active insects from
1999 to 2003. Soil samples were analyzed and suction traps used
between 1994 of 1996. A suction trap was constructed of a fan
producing air flow through a suction tube to draw an insect from a
specific point. These traps are normally used to collect aphids but
also small flying insects. Insects collected from different habitats were
sorted and identified up to species level with a stereo microscope.
The ρ(r) probability density characterizing the relative
species abundance distribution (RSA) was computed by the classical
method: Counting the number Nk of species with sizes, r, between 2k
and 2κ+1 (κ =1,2,3 ….), i.e. constructing a histogram on intervals that
are not of constant length, but are exponentially increasing. The
scaling exponent around -1 means, that we know all the insect
species from the investigated site.
The Shannon-Weiner (H‘) and the log series fisher alpha
(α) diversity indices were used to measure biodiversity (Fisher et
al., 1943; Pielou, 1984). The Shannon-Weiner (H‘) was used to
compare our data with other similar studies where only these
indices were performed. The alpha diversity index is considered
to be superior to commonly used indices because the sensitivity to
sample size is low and use high discriminant ability (Fisher et al.,
1943; Shah et al., 2003). The maximum likelihood estimate α can
be divided from
S = α log (1+N/α)
where S = number of species in the sample, and N = number of
individuals in the sample. Values of α were computed using the Past
Program 1.18.
Table - 1: Insect orders and species identified in one hectare research site in a Hungarian oak forest
Insect orders No. of species
Colembola (Loksa, Traser) 69
Dermaptera (Racz I.) 2
Ortoptera (Nagy B., Racz I.) 25
Thysanoptera (Jenser G.) 40
Heteroptera (Kondorosi E.) 220
Homoptera (Baski Zs., Kozar F., Orosz A.) 139
Coleoptera (Ádam L., Balog A., Czeto Zs., Marko V., Merkl O., Podlusanyi A., Szaloki D., Vigh K.) 1,051
Raphidioptera (Szentkilalyi F.) 7
Neuroptera (Szentkilalyi F., Ábraham L.) 45
Hymenoptera (Csoka Gy., Galle L., Jozan Zs., Papp J., Zombori L., Varkonyi G.) 470
Trichoptera (Schmera D.) 27
Lepidoptera (Meszaros Z., Szaboki Cs., Varga Z.) 803
Mecoptera (Ábrahám L.) 4
Diptera (Csoka Gy., Deli-Draskovits .A, Mihalyi, Papp L.) 400
Total species 3,602
Balog et al.264