Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) as indicators in nature valorisation of anthropogenic environments in Polish part of the Western Carpathians

Abstract

The paper presents species richness and abundance, domination structure, values of Shannon-Wiener (H ') and Berger-Parker biodiversity indices (d), as well as fauna value index (FV) of 10 different weevil assemblages occurring in anthropogenic environments of five regions in Polish part of the Western Carpathian Mts., in aspect of the use of these herbivorous beetles for environmental assessment. The study in 2016 was carried out using the quantitative sweep net method. The results show a diversified extent of degradation of the studied biotopes. Environments more changed have lower values of the analyzed indices in comparison with less modified biotopes. The application of the FV index allows also to know the fauna values of species, and together with biodiversity indices, for a better assessment of the nature value of a given biotope. The results of the study support the usefulness of weevils as indicators for assessment of environmental changes.