ecologi ae conservação das comuni dades de i ... - ICB - UFMG

Abstract- Not until the 80´s has Brazilian cave fauna been studied in such a wide andsystematic way. However, most of these studies only included the regions of Vale doRibeira (southern São Paulo, Brazil) and northern Paraná (Brazil). The aim of thisstudy was to evaluate the composition, richness, diversity, dominance, endemism, andsimilarity of invertebrate communities in 103 caves present in the Brazilian AtlanticForest. Communities structure was related to physical and topographic parameters ofthe caves. A total of 106.741 invertebrates, distributed among 1.938 morphospecies andfrom at least 191 families, were registered. Araneae was the richest taxon (363 spp),followed by Coleoptera (260 spp), Diptera (248 spp), Acari (139 spp), Hymenoptera(129 spp) and Lepidoptera (88 spp). Araneae was also the most distributed order amongthe caves (99 cav), followed by Diptera (91 cav), Coleoptera (84 cav), Ensifera (84 cav),Hymenoptera (81 cav), Heteroptera (79 cav), Acari (78 cav), Lepidoptera (78 cav),Collembola (76 cav), Opiliones (66 cav), Isopoda (61 cav), Psocoptera (60 cav),Diplopoda (58 cav), Pseudoescorpiones (56 cav), Homoptera (55 cav), Dictyoptera (53cav) and Annelida (46 cav). A total of 93 troglomorphic morphospecies of invertebrateswere registered, against 105spp that have historically been described. The Brazilianregions presenting more richness of troglomorphic species, up to this moment, includeferroginous fields in the region of Quadrilátero Ferrifero , located in Minas Gerais (68spp); southern São Paulo (62 spp.); southern Bahia (18 spp.); Chapada Diamantina ,Bahia (13 spp.); Parque Nacional Cavernas do Vale do Peruaçu , northern MinasGerais (11 spp.); Serra do Ramalho , Bahia (09 spp.); and Serra de Ibitipoca ,southern Minas Gerais (09 spp). Quantitative similarity of invertebrate communitiesbetween caves was low (< 30%). Richness of invertebrates has positively andsignificantly related to linear development of caves (R = 0,46, p < 0,001), number ofcave entrances (R = 0,26, p < 0,01), and environmental stability of caves (R = 0,41, p