S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 51. (Budapest, 1990)
FOLIA ENTOMOLOGICA HUNGARIGA ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK LI 1990 P- 1724 Species richness, abundance and diversity of beetles (Coleoptera) in relation to ecological succession By A. BÁLDI (Received May 11, 1990) ABSTRACT: Beetles (Coleoptera) were collected by pitfall trapping near Budapest (Hungary) , in three stages of dolomitic succession from April to October in 1988. Species richness and abundance were greatest in the mature stage, in sessile-turkey oak forest. The diversity and equitability values were greatest in the medium stage, in dolomitic steppe meadow. The open dolomitic grassland was the poorest habitat. The similarity was high between the two grassdwelling communities, but low between the forest and each of the grass-dwelling communities. The changes of diversity and equitability did not support the general theory of ecological succession. INTRODUCTION Succession theory has always played a central role in ecology from the beginning of the twentieth century (Clements 1916, Gleason 1926, Margalef 1968, Odum 1969, Horn 1976, Cotmel and Slatyer 1977, MacMahon 1980) . This theory gives general trends in community development, providing an important tool for the prediction of environmental changes (Peet and Christensen 1980) . The latter has a significant role in nature conservation. The majority of succession projects dealt with plant communities (Gallé 1985) . There are some further studies on birds, e.g. Shugart and James 1973, Helle and Fuller 1933, Moskát and Székely 1989 , but papers on insects are rather scarce. There are only a few papers about the succession of beetles, namely about phytophagous (Brown and Hyman 1986) and aquatic species (Nils'son 1984) . We studied species richness, species abundance and diversity of grounddwelling beetle communities of different successional stages of a rocky vegetation in Hungary. STUDY AREA The studi' area is located on the Kutya hill in the Budai Mountains ( Northern Hungary) . The area lies 30 km from Budapest in NW direction ( 47° 35' N, 18° 90' E ). The basic rock is Triassic dolomite . There are rendzina in patches covered by grass vegetation, and brown soil in forested areas. We selected three study sites to represent different levels of the successional sere: l7
