Comunidades de invertebrados terrestres de três cavernas quartzíticas no Vale do Mandembe, Luminárias, MG

Abstract

The present work evaluated the composition, richness, abundance, diversity, dominance, and similarity of the terrestrial invertebrate communities in three quartzite caves located in Vale do Mandembe, Luminarias, South of Minas Gerais. In the caves 3,985 invertebrates were observed, distributed in 104 species of at least 50 families. The Lobo cave presented the highest richness (58 spp.), followed by Campo I cave (35) and the Mandembe cave (31). The richest order was Diptera (29 spp.), followed by Araneae (20), Acari (10), Coleoptera (10) Lepidoptera (7), Collembola, (6) and Psocoptera (4). The quantitative similarity values among the communities were low (< 10%). The diversity was higher in the Lobo cave (H´ = 1.18), followed by Mandembe cave (H´ = 0.85) and the Campo I cave (H´ = 0.61). The dominance was higher in the Mandembe cave (0.48), followed by Campo I cave (0.41) and Lobo cave (0.32). The species turnover measured through the β-diversity was high (77.11). In spite of not finding any troglomorphic species, the caves of this study are quite unique, by the fact of presenting a high richness, diversity and low invertebrate fauna similarity values. Furthermore, heterogeneous ecological conditions occur, mainly in terms of trophic structure and microhabitat availability (distinct presence of swift and hematophagous bat guano, water courses, organic plant matter, roots and fallen blocks in the different caves) that can be easily affected by disordered visitation.