The staphylinid fauna of Panguana, Peru – diversity and zoogeographic aspects

Abstract

The present study aimed to add Staphylinidae to the known faunal composition of the Panguana area, a hot spot of biodiversity world-wide. The investigation is based mainly on the material collected by W. Hanagarth and M. Verhaagh but it also includes species described from the area and collected by other scientists. From the total of 1470 specimens, 178 were identified to species level. According to the Chao-1 method, approximately 700 – 1300 species can be expected for the soil surface fauna . Species diversity ranged between 2.3 and 4.6 ln H(s) with highest values in the rainforest and lowest in agricultural fields. The same relation is true for number of species and evenness. Of the 11 different habitats identified, inundation frequency was the main separating environmental parameter, followed by human impact. The zoogeographic analysis revealed 41 species that are likely endemic for the region, which corresponds to 23 % of the identified species. Weak geographic relations exist to the Atlantic rainforest and to the Amazon lowland rainforest by combining common species. Habitats with human impact have the lowest percentage of endemic species and the highest of widely distributed neotropical species, whereas near-natural habitats reveal a vice-versa relation.