Abundance and diversity of arthropods associated to semi-natural habitats in horticulturalfarms from La Plata, Argentina

Abstract

The study of the relationships between plant diversity and arthropods characteristics is important to designsustainable agricultural systems. Semi-natural habitats can provide favourable characteristics to the presence of natural enemies,favouring biological control and hence, reducing the use of chemicals inputs. Therefore, the relationship between plantcharacteristics and arthropods, epiphyte (net trap) and epigeal (pitfall trap) was studied on 13 semi-natural habitats in 3 horticulturefarms from La Plata. Species, gender and family richness were analysed. The presence of botanical families Apiaceae, Fabaceae,Asteraceae, the number of botanical species from these families and the vegetation structure were considered. Species, genderand family richness varied between habitats. A total of 51 plant species, 47 genders and 18 families were identified and 2260arthropods were recorded. Between natural enemies, parasitoids and predators as spiders, opiliones and coleopteros (Carabidae,Coccinelidae y Staphylinidae) were found. The number of natural enemies was different in each habitat. The variation ofabundance between habitat was higher for epiphyte (CV: 59%) than epigeal (CV: 40%) fauna. Plant characteristics showed ahigher correlation with epiphyte than with epigeal fauna. The data indicated that botanical composition and structure of semi-naturalhabitats of horticultural farms from La Plata, would provide diverse conditions for natural enemies of different behaviours andhabitats, favouring thus the biological control in these farms.