Abstract

PROCHEş, Ş.  and  COWLING, R.M.. Do insect distributions fit our biomes?. S. Afr. j. sci. [online]. 2007, vol.103, n.5-6, pp.258-261. ISSN 1996-7489.

An assessment of biome-specificity in southern African insect assemblages was undertaken using sweep collections in fynbos, grassland, subtropical thicket and Nama-karoo. Insect samples from the same biome generally cluster together in multidimensional scaling analyses, although there is a great variability between sites within each biome. Rich and distinctive insect faunas exist in each biome, including fynbos. In the Baviaanskloof Conservation Area of the southeastern Cape, where the four biomes marginally co-occur, some insect assemblages are enriched relative to sites at the core of the biomes, presumably through the mixing of faunas via transient or persistent establishment of populations recruited from adjacent biomes.

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