Материалы к изучению жуков-усачей Уйского заказника (Челябинская область)

Description

Abstract (English)

Longhorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) form a large family of beetles represented in the world’s fauna by more than 26 thousand species. The fauna of Russia and neighbouring countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia) contains about 920 species. Studies of longhorn beetles in the Chelyabinsk region have been conducted in the Ilmen Reserve, the Arkaim Museum Reserve, the Troitsk Reserve, the Chesma district and the Chelyabinsk pine forest. The exact number of longhorn beetle species in the region is unknown and is probably no less than 120–130. We studied longhorn beetles on the territory of the Uy Biological Reserve located in the southern forest-steppe subzone of the Chelyabinsk region on the border with the Republic of Bashkortostan. The reserve is one of the key reserves for many rare and protected plants, animals and fungi due to its unique location at the border between forest and steppe biotas. The region’s climate is continental, the sum of positive temperatures above 10°C is 1900–2000°C, and annual precipitation is 410–450 mm. The vegetation cover is represented by pine forests and steppe areas, with marginal aquatic vegetation found along the banks of water bodies and watercourses. Pinus sylvestris predominates in the canopy, often with the addition of Larix sibirica, Betula pendula and Populus tremula. The field layer was typically represented by mixed vegetation including grasses-forbs, bracken-forbs, and grasses with green moss communities. In some places, lingonberry and white moss communities were present. In the driest areas, there were steppe rocky pine forests and short-grass sparse forests with reduced herbaceous vegetation and a significantly developed moss-lichen cover. On the periphery of the reserve, secondary birch and aspen forests, steppe meadows, meadows, true sod-grass-forb and petrophytic steppes were widespread.

We conducted our study in June 2018 and July 2023 at two stationary points: “Dalniye Dachi” (west of Glazunovka village) and the pioneer camp “Zvezdniy” (south of Lake Voroninskoye). Beetles were collected at the sites during daily radial routes from 5 to 12 km long which eventually covered the entire territory of the reserve. The  ollected specimens were mostly adult beetles caught in the grass stands, on the flowers of herbaceous plants and shrubs, standing and fallen tree trunks, forest litter, forest paths and ground roads. We collected the beetles manually or using an aerial entomological net and a sweeping net. The relative abundance of species was assessed on a 5-point scale: 1 — very rare, 2 — rare, 3 — common, 4 — frequent, 5 — abundant.

The fauna of longhorn beetles of the Uy Biological Reserve includes at least 36 species from 4 subfamilies: Cerambycinae (3 species), Lamiinae (6), Lepturinae (24) and Spondylidinae (3). Frequent and abundant species included 3 wood-flower species of longhorn beetles of the subfamily Lepturinae (Stenurella melanura, S. bifasciata and Brachyta interrogationis) found as adults on many flowering plants in meadow communities, at the forest edges and in the forest clearings. Common species included 15 species from 3 subfamilies Cerambycinae (2 species), Lamiinae (3) and Lepturinae (10) found in various biotopes in the tree-shrub and herbaceous layers. The overwhelming majority of them (12) were woody-floral and woody-floralherbaceous, 1 species (Agapanthia vilossoviridescens) was a stem borer, and 2 species (Mesosa myops, Monochamus galloprovincialis) were wood-feeding species. Some wood-feeding longhorn beetles of the subfamily Lamiinae (3 species) were rare, as were all the Spondylidinae (3) and the woody-floral and woody-floral-herbaceous Lepturinae (8 species). The woody-floral Aromia moschata (Cerambycinae), Acmaeops marginatus, Judolia sexmaculata and Dinoptera collaris (Lepturinae) were very rare. The available data on longhorn beetles were obtained mainly during research in the forest-steppe zone of the Chelyabinsk region. The forest zone so far remains without the attention of coleopterologists, although unique stenotopic species closely associated with certain woody plants can be discovered, especially in the zone of coniferous-broadleaf forests in the west of the region. In the steppe zone, many interesting beetles may be found, for example, representatives of the genus Dorcadion Dalman, 1817 and some herbaceous-floral species.