An important question for biodiversity is what is the impact of monocultures of exotic forest trees on native fauna, especially insects. Coleoptera have been shown to be sensitive to small-scale variations in forest floristic and structure. To test this idea, a comparison of families of Coleoptera was made between a natural forest and a monoculture of Pinus elliottii Engelmann at the Vivat Floresta Ecological Park, Tijucas do Sul, Paraná, in southern Brazil. A one-year inventory was carried out from August 2004 to July 2005 with three malaise traps in each forest type, to compare, in this first preliminary study, family richness and abundance. A total of 12,397 insects in 57 families were collected. Abundance was greatest in the natural forest, while family richness was greatest at the border of the two forest types. As commonly found, studies on comparative abundance composition of areas including only dominant families involved in the first 60% of total abundance in any given area show the same trends as studies that include total abundance of all the families. In the pine monoculture, the dominant families were, in order of abundance, Cerambycidae, Staphylinidae, Curculionidae, Nitidulidae, Lampyridae, Scolytidae and Chrysomelidae. In the natural forest, the order of dominance was Chrysomelidae, Cerambycidae, Curculionidae, Lampyridae, Nitidulidae and Staphylinidae.
Araucaria forest; exotic pine plantation; family composition; family constancy; malaise trap
