Abstract: In order to get the basic information about ground-dwelling beetle and give some suggestions for the local biodiversity conservation, we investigated the ground-dwelling beetle assemblages by pitfall trapping in natural forest, plantation forest, and dry land in lac-plantation-farmland ecosystem in Luchun County, Yunnan Province, South-western China, during 2006-2007. In total, 1 678 specimens were collected, representing 120 species in 24 families of Coleoptera. Among these beetles, Carabidae and Scarabaeidae had the highest species richness, both comprising 12.50% of the total species observed. Tenebrionidae species had the highest abundance, comprising 64.48% of all ground-dwelling beetles; and the Scarabaeidae ranked the second in abundance, comprising 17.58%. Most families did not differ in both abundance and species richness across the three habitats sampled, while Carabidae, Staphylinidae, Elateridae, Tenebrionidae, Coccinellidae and Scolytidae differed in abundance or species richness. Among the plots, natural forest had the lowest abundance and dominance, richer species, and highest diversity; plantation forest had richer species and abundance, and moderate dominance and diversity; while dry land had the highest abundance and dominance, and the lowest species richness and diversity. Hierarchical clustering of ground-dwelling beetle assemblages at the species level showed that plantation forest was nearly to dry land in species composition. While at the family level, plantation forest was close to natural forest. These results suggest that the land-use in lac-plantation-farmland ecosystem is different and diverse; the natural forest plays the most important role in maintaining the beetle diversity, while the plantation forest plays the second important role, which needs further restoration.

Key words: Agroforestry ecosystem, lac-plantation-farmland ecosystem, ground-dwelling beetles, species diversity, species richness, species dominance, agricultural land uses