VARIATION IN BEETLE (COLEOPTERA) DIVERSITY AT DIFFERENT HEIGHTS OF TREE CANOPY IN A NATIVE FOREST AND FOREST PLANTATION IN SABAH, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Mist-blowing from a tower was used to investigate the beetle species richness, abundance and composition at three different canopy levels in a regenerating native forest and a forest plantation of Acacia mangium. Species richness and abundance did not differ between levels in the forest but their numbers decreased from bottom to top level in the forest plantation. CCA (canonical correspondence analysis) showed that there was a distinct difference in species composition between sites but not between canopy levels. The study also provided some general information on the canopy Coleoptera assemblages in the forest and forest plantation: Chrysomelidae and Curculionidae were highly abundant in the forest while in the forest plantation, Tenebrionidae and Elateridae were the most abundant families. Overall, vertical stratification of the fauna was less pronounced here than in other published studies.