The Scarabs and the Meteorological Conditions

Abstract

Study the meteorological factors is important to understand scarabs population dynamics. So this study examined the relationship between meteorological conditions and the scarabeids population fluctuation in Mata de Cocal in Teresina-PI from August 2011 to July 2012. Scarabs were collected weekly in 12 pitfall traps unattractive. It confirmed canonical correlation between the monthly occurrence record in the Scarabaeidae species in the group of monthly data of insolation, pluviometric precipitation, relative humidity and temperature, with a magnitude of 1, chi-square equal to 390.15 with 40 degrees of freedom and p-value corresponding equal to < 0.0001. Significantly (p < 0.0001), there was canonical correlation between insolation data (0.31), pluviometric precipitation (0.26), humidity (0.03) and temperature (-0.16) in the monthly occurrence record of the scarabeids. In this way the population fluctuation of certain scarabs species, mainly, Coprophanaeus jasius (0.47; p < 0.0001), Deltochilum sp. (0.32; p < 0.0001) and Dichotomius nisus (0.48; p < 0.0001) is governed predominantly by regional variables and their presence is conditioned by meteorological parameters, insolation principally.

Keywords:
biometeorology; entomology; ecology