The species diversity of ground beetles (Coleoptera; Carabidae) of different ecosystems from south east of Tehran province, Iran

Ground beetles as ‘‘generalist predators’’ are one of the most common and species-rich families of arthropods in agricultural ecosystems and their role as effective bioindicators is well known. Ground beetles (Carabidae) of south east of Tehran province was studied during 2015. These beetles were collected by pitfall traps from different ecosystems such as alfalfa and barley fields as well as green spaces. The species diversity was studied by Species Diversity and Richness software. Different tests used in this study included: Alpha Diversity index, Shannon-Wiener Index, Simpson Index, Beta (β) diversity, Species Evenness, Pielou J Index, Species Richness and Similarity index. In this study 450 specimens belonging to 12 species were collected. The species include Acinopus picipes (Olivier, 1795), Amara ovate (Fabricius, 1792), Brachinus ejaculans Fisher von Waldheim, 1828, Calathus fuscipes (Goeze, 1777)، , Calathus melanocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758), Cylindera germanica (Linnaeus, 1758), Distichus planus (Bonelli, 1813), Harpalus griseus (Panzer, 1796), Harpalus rufipes (Degeer, 1774), Poecilus wollastoni (Wollaston, 1854), Siagona europaea Dejean, 1826 and Zabrus tenebrioides (Goeze, 1777) . Based on the results, Distichus planus had the most divergence in barley fields of Pakdasht and Gharchak. Green space of Abureyhan campus and alfalfa field of Pakdasht with 8 and 5 species, respectively, had the highest number of species. Both of barley fields of Pakdasht and Gharchak with 4 species had the lowest number of species. Moreover, the alfalfa field of Pakdasht and barley field of Pakdasht had the highest and lowest evenness, respectively. Based on the similarity index, green space of Abureyhan campus and alfalfa field of Pakdasht had the most similarity (75%) and barley of Pakdasht and Gharchak with alfalfa field of Pakdasht had the lowest similarity (33%) Carabid beetles are important biological control agents in agroecosystems and the study of their biodiversity helps pest management programs. The results of this study enhanced our knowledge regarding the diversity of Carabid species in central Iran