Diversidade de entomobryoidea (Hexapoda: Collembola) epiedáficos em uma área de cerrado stricto sensu do Parque Nacional de Sete Cidades, estado do Piauí, Brasil

Abstract

This study aimed to estimate the diversity of epiedaphic Entomobryoidea in a Cerrado stricto sensu area of the Sete Cidades National Park, State of Piauí, in the rainy season. Evaluating which environmental parameters influence the species diversity in the sample area. The specimens were collected using pitfalls traps, which were spread along of a 100 meter transect with 11 sampling points. Posteriorly, the specimens were mounted on glass slides, and the taxonomic identification was made with specialized identification keys. The environmental parameters were also collected, sch as soil humidity, soil temperature, percentage of vegetation cover and leaf litter height, which had their influences tested on the composition of the Entomobryoidea fauna through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). Species diversity was measured using the Shannon-Wiener index and equitability was measured using Pielou´s index. A total of 221 individuals were collected, distributed in 12 species, six genera and two families. Six of the recorded species are new to the science. Entomobryidae was the richest family with eight species, and Seira was the richest genus. However, the most abundant genus was Pseudosinella, with 83 individuals collected. The genera Salina, Seira and Lepidocyrtinus constitute new records for the region. The diversity measured for the area was 1.86, which was close to the maximum expected diversity (Hmax) which was 2.48. However, the Pielou index indicated a low equitability in the sampled community. The environmental variables that best explained the variation in the observed ecological patterns were soil humidity and vegetation cover, with most species being negatively influenced by these factors.