Coleopteran Fauna Of Agroecosystems In Awka, Nigeria

A study was carried out to investigate the coleopteran fauna of two agroecosystems (cultivated farmland and fallow plot at the Permanent Site of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka) for a twelve-month period using the pitfall technque. Eight pitfall traps made up o plastic containers with mouth diameters of 9.80 cm and 6.20 cm deep were set monthly at random in the two sampling sites. The traps, which were filed to one-third with 5 % formalin, serving a preservative, were inspected every twenty-four hours and the insects caught sorted and counted under a dissecting microscope. Species of Coleoptera obtained from the cultivated plot were Macrocheilus labrosus, Hyparpalus sp., Carpophilus fumatus, Podagrica uniforma, Tetragonothorax sp., Chlaenius sp., Pheropsophus parallus, Silidas apicalis, Tenebroides mauritanicus, Heteroderes sp., and Heterorynchus licas while only Hyparpalus sp., and Mylabris sp., were obtained from the fallow plot. The result of Fisher\'s Least Significance Difference (F-LSD) test shows that the pitfall catchesof Coleopterans from the two sampling sites were significantly different at p-value of 00053 and mean difference of 2.500. The heterogeneity of the coleopteran species at the cultivated plot was traced to cultivation. The role of certain coleopteran families as faunal indicators was highlighted Other factors, which influenced the Coleopteran species at the farmlands were also discussed. Keywords: Coleoptera, Fauna, Agroecosystems, Pitfall trapsAnimal Research International Vol. 4 (2) 2007 pp. 647-64