Leaf beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) communities of Kovada Lake and Kızıldağ national parks (Isparta,Turkey): assessing the effects of habitat types

Leaf beetle species composition, diversity and community structure were investigated and compared among three different habitat types (herbaceous open area, forest area without shrubs, forest area with shrubs) included in Kovada Lake (KL) and K?z?lda? (KD) national parks in Isparta province, at the Mediterranean region of Turkey. In total, 132 leaf beetle species (88 from KL and 96 from KD) belonging to ten subfamilies were collected. Spatial distribution of the leaf beetles and estimated species number were compared between study sites and some environmental factors affecting the determined species were analyzed. The highest leaf beetle diversity among the habitat types was in the forest areas with abundant shrubby understory at the KL with diversity values of 2.67 (Shannon–Wiener index) and 0.87 (Simpson index). The most similar habitats in terms of the leaf beetle communities were herbaceous open areas at both national parks with similarity values 50% (Sørensen index) and 34% (Jaccard index). Nonparametric estimators ICE, Chao2, Jackknife1 and Jackknife2 show that the percentages of the detected leaf beetle species during field surveys in the KL were between 85% and 93%, and in the KD were between 67% and 78%. Canonical correspondence analysis indicates that the most effective environmental variables on the leaf beetle species diversity were covers of the herbaceous and tree layers. Also, these results show that the most important environmental variable affecting the leaf beetle species diversity was floristic structure of the sites.