Diversity of Beetle on Oak (Quercus lanata, Smith) Canopy in Shivapuri National Park and Naudhara Community Forest, Nepal

Abstract

A survey of canopy beetle was conducted during June 2014 to March 2015 in Shivapuri National Park and Naudhara Community Forest. The study was focused on the diversity of canopy beetle associated with oak (Quercus lanata), comparing diversity between two study sites and to study various environmental factors (temperature, canopy cover, distance from human settlement, dead wood volume, history of host plants, canopy size and DBH) affecting the canopy beetle diversity. Eighteen canopy trap of 60 × 40 cm (height ×width) on each study area were used for beetle sampling. A total of 345 individuals of beetle belonging to 15 families were recorded from two study sites. Scarabaeidae was the dominant family contributing 171 individuals followed by the families Buprestidae, Curculionidae and Lucanidae contributing 34, 20 and 16 individuals respectively. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) with Poisson distribution and log link function was used to find factors affecting diversity of beetle. Multivariate test was carried using unimodal technique (CCA) to generate the relationship between environmental factors and beetle families and the significance was tested by performing Monte Carlo permutation test. The beetle occurrence was high during March, June, July and August. It was found that there were no beetle recorded during January, very few during February. Abundance of beetle were positively significant with distance from human settlement, deadwood volume, and history of host plant. Naudhara Community Forest was found to be flourishing more beetle diversity than Shivapuri National Park.