Description
Beetles play an important role in agrosystems as bioindicators of quality, ecology, conservation, and soil characteristics. The Coleoptera of agrosystems in Morocco are poorly known. To contribute to the knowledge of beetles in this country we conducted a survey in a region of North-West Morocco between 2019 and 2020. The inventory was carried out using several types of traps. We identified 54 species belonging to 14 families, 20 subfamilies, and 18 tribes. The most abundant family was Carabidae, with 24 species, and the most dominant subfamily was Harpalinae, with 19 species. This work provides the first checklist of coleopteran fauna associated with agrosystems in North-West Morocco. We provide an identification key of subfamily and tribe, and update information on the distribution of the beetles identified.
Data Records
The data in this checklist resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 55 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
El Harche, H., Chavanon, G., Dahmani, J., Fadli, M., 2022. Checklist of terrestrial beetles (Arthropoda: Insecta, Coleoptera) associated with agroecosystems in North-West Morocco. Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. Checklist.
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: e2b07bd1-5c51-4460-be8d-7c998e99109a. Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Spain.
Keywords
Coleoptera; Checklist; North-West Morocco; Checklist
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Geographic Coverage
The study was conducted at 5 stations in the region of Sidi Kacem (34° 13' 00" N, 5° 42' 00" W) in the north-west of Morocco
Bounding Coordinates | South West [34.166, -5.791], North East [34.242, -5.629] |
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Temporal Coverage
Start Date / End Date | 2019-03-01 / 2020-09-30 |
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Project Data
About 400,000 species of beetles have been described worldwide to date and the total number is estimated to be between 850,000 and 4 million (Zhang, 2013; Bouchard et al., 2017). The largest order is Coleoptera. The evolutionary success of this order can be attributed to its diversity of habitat types (Bouchard et al., 2017). Beetles are found in almost all ecosystems and they play diverse ecological roles, ranging from ecosystem engineers to biological control agents (Myers et al., 2009; Tseng et al., 2018). Because of their high diversity, beetles are effective and reliable indicator species for monitoring environmental change. They are found in high numbers in most vegetation types and can be sampled using various techniques (Chung, 2004). Their versatility makes them a valuable group to study assemblage structure and diversity in various habitats. Studies on the distribution and survival of many beetle species in different habitats serve to consolidate our level of knowledge regarding the effects of changes in environment and climate (Vaibhao et al., 2013). Species checklists are effective tools in the domain of natural science and they are directly related to any conservation program of a species. In comparison with many other areas in the world, such as Europe, relatively few studies have been conducted to date in Morroco other than the earliest work of Antoine (1955-1962) and Kocher (1956-1969) and later studies by Chavanon et al., 1995; Zitouni and Chavanon, 2000, 2005; Arahou, 2008, 2010; Hajji Hour et al., 2011; Bouraada et al., 2016, 2020; Chavanon, 2020; and El Harche et al., 2021a, 2021b. However, our knowledge of the beetle fauna in Morroco is incomplete, especially that of agrosystems. Most research to date has focused on insects in natural and forest ecosystems. To our knowledge, no distributional checklist of beetles in agrosystems has yet been carried out in Morocco. We are aware only of El Harche et al.’s (2021) research on the biodiversity of insect fauna in semi-arid agrosystems. Species checklists are crucial for any type of inquiry or analysis of biodiversity but research has not yet been performed in many regions in the country. Here we studied the composition of beetles in Sidi Kacem, in the North-West of Morocco. The aim of this paper is to provide the first checklist of Coleoptera in agrosystems in this region.
Title | Checklist of terrestrial beetles (Arthropoda, Insecta, Coleoptera) associated with agroecosystems in North-West Morocco |
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Study Area Description | The study was conducted at 5 stations in the region of Sidi Kacem (34° 13' 00" N, 5° 42' 00" W) in the north-west of Morocco (fig. 1): station 1: 34° 12' 35.5" N - 5° 42' 31.8" W: a bean field (Vicia faba L., Fabaceae), characterized by a silty clay soil; station 2: 34° 14' 41.5" N - 5° 42' 14.9" W: a field of cereal crops (soft wheat: Triticum aestivum L., Poaceae), characterized by a silty clay soil; station 3: 34° 13' 50.5" N - 5° 42' 14.7"W: natural steppe. The plant species that dominate the area are: Nicotiana glauca Graham (Solanaceae), Ferula communis L. (Apiaceae), Cynara humilis L. (Asteraceae), and Ammi visnaga (L.) Lam. (Apiaceae). Again, the soil here is a silty clay; station 4: 34° 15' 19.1" N - 5° 44' 01.3" W: alfalfa field (Medicago sativa L., Fabaceae) and a wasteland dominated mainly by Dittrichia viscosa (L.) Greuter (Asteraceae). This station has sandy, clay loamy soil; station 5: 34° 11' 12.5" N - 5° 42' 32.8" W: matorral, characterized by a clay soil. The plant species that dominate the area are: Chamaerops humilis L. (Arecaceae), Eucalyptus sp. (Myrtaceae), Olea europaea L. (Oleaceae) and Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. (Cactaceae). |
Design Description | Three sampling techniques were used: Barber traps (consisting of 10 cm diameter and 17 cm high pots), sight hunting, and sweep nets. Beetles were collected between March 2019 and September 2020. The captured specimens were identified and labeled following maximum magnification of x35 and standard identification keys, including French carabid fauna (Jeannel, 1941-1942) and Moroccan carabid beetles (Antoine, 1955-1962). For validation, we consulted Antoine's collection at the Scientific Institute of Rabat (Morocco) and the collections of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris (France). Subfamily, tribe, and species are listed. All the species are listed with their valid names, correct spelling, author, and year of description. |
The personnel involved in the project:
Sampling Methods
Three sampling techniques were used: Barber traps (consisting of 10 cm diameter and 17 cm high pots), sight hunting, and sweep nets. Beetles were collected between March 2019 and September 2020.
Study Extent | The study was conducted at 5 stations in the region of Sidi Kacem (34° 13' 00" N, 5° 42' 00" W) in the north-west of Morocco (fig. 1): station 1: 34° 12' 35.5" N - 5° 42' 31.8" W: a bean field (Vicia faba L., Fabaceae), characterized by a silty clay soil; station 2: 34° 14' 41.5" N - 5° 42' 14.9" W: a field of cereal crops (soft wheat: Triticum aestivum L., Poaceae), characterized by a silty clay soil; station 3: 34° 13' 50.5" N - 5° 42' 14.7"W: natural steppe. The plant species that dominate the area are: Nicotiana glauca Graham (Solanaceae), Ferula communis L. (Apiaceae), Cynara humilis L. (Asteraceae), and Ammi visnaga (L.) Lam. (Apiaceae). Again, the soil here is a silty clay; station 4: 34° 15' 19.1" N - 5° 44' 01.3" W: alfalfa field (Medicago sativa L., Fabaceae) and a wasteland dominated mainly by Dittrichia viscosa (L.) Greuter (Asteraceae). This station has sandy, clay loamy soil; station 5: 34° 11' 12.5" N - 5° 42' 32.8" W: matorral, characterized by a clay soil. The plant species that dominate the area are: Chamaerops humilis L. (Arecaceae), Eucalyptus sp. (Myrtaceae), Olea europaea L. (Oleaceae) and Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. (Cactaceae). |
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Quality Control | The captured specimens were identified and labeled following maximum magnification of x35 and standard identification keys, including French carabid fauna (Jeannel, 1941-1942) and Moroccan carabid beetles (Antoine, 1955-1962). |
Method step description:
- For validation, we consulted Antoine's collection at the Scientific Institute of Rabat (Morocco) and the collections of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris (France). Subfamily, tribe, and species are listed. All the species are listed with their valid names, correct spelling, author, and year of description.
Bibliographic Citations
- El Harche, H., Chavanon, G., Dahmani, J., Fadli, M., 2022. Checklist of terrestrial beetles (Arthropoda, Insecta, Coleoptera) associated with agroecosystems in North–West Morocco. Arxius de Miscel·lània Zoològica, 20: 59–81, Doi: https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2022.20.0059 https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2022.20.0059
Additional Metadata
Alternative Identifiers | 10.15470/ohymvn |
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e2b07bd1-5c51-4460-be8d-7c998e99109a | |
https://ipt.gbif.es/resource?r=carabidos-nw-morocco |