Abstract:

In this paper, community diversity of longhorn beetles was investigated in Baishuijiang Nature Reserve of Gansu from 2007 to 2009, to study influences of different vegetation types along altitude gradient on community composition of longhorn beetles, and dissimilarity in communities of longhorn beetles lived on the different vegetation types. Total 826 individuals were collected, belonging to 88 species, 52 genera and 5 subfamilies. Among these, <i>Anoplophora glabripennis</i>, <i>A. chralis</i> and <i>Chlorophorus motshulski</i> were dominant. In the different vegetation types, the species and community diversity of longhorn beetles decreased with increasing altitude. we collected 674 individuals in broad-leaved forests and evergreen deciduous broad-leaved mixed forests at the altitude ranging from 900 to 1 600 m, accounted for 81.6 percent of total individuals. The result indicted that the most species of longhorn beetles were distributed in low altitude. Analyses of community diversity showed that the dissimilarity of the beetle communities in the different vegetation types was generally high. Among them, the dissimilarity of longhorn beetle communities was the lowest in evergreen deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest zone and deciduous broad-leaved forest zone, with the dissimilarity coefficient of 0.485 7. It was concluded that biodiversity of longhorn beetles largely responded to altitude gradients and the vegetation variation.

Key words: longhorn beetles, diversity, vegetation type, Baishuijiang Nature Reserve