ENTOMOFAUNAL COMPARISON UNDER THREE LANDSCAPE CONDITIONS AT THE CERRO DE JUAICA (TENJO, CUNDINAMARCA)

Biodiversity studies of the insect fauna are scarce for high Andean forests in Colombia and absent for agroforestry systems. To contribute to the knowledge of this specific group in these ecosystems, a study was conducted to survey the diversity of the insect fauna present in the Juaica's hill at Tenjo, Cundinamarca. The ecosystem was divided into three landscapes: forest, agroforestry and pasture. Three native tree species were planted in the agroforestry system: oak (Quercus humboldtii), alder (Alnus acuminata) and magle or macle (Escallonia pendula) in order to observe their influence on the insect fauna diversity comparing it with the other two landscapes. In each landscape three insect capture techniques were employed per sampling site, arranged in transects: pitfall traps, sweep net and direct hand collection. During four months a total of 842 specimens were collected, represented by 87 insect morpho-species grouped into 49 families and 12 Orders. The Order of highest numerical importance was Diptera with 13 families, which corresponds to 26.5% of the abundance of the insect fauna, followed by Hemiptera with twelve families (25%), Coleoptera with nine families (18%), and Hymenoptera with five families (10%). The analysis of the diversity indices, showed the highest value in rate for forest landscape with 3.50 for ShannonWiener and 11.17 for Margalef. The agroforestry system can be considered as a positive arrangement for either the maintenance or the establishment of an insect fauna, already absent in pasture which replaced the native forests