It is raining bugs: summer dispersal of aquatic bugs (Hemiptera, Heteroptera: Nepomorpha) in Srebarna Nature Reserve (Bulgaria)

• Main Author: Desislava Stoianova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences 2018-05-01
• Series: Historia naturalis bulgarica
• Subjects: corixidae; light trap; sex ratio; uv; wetland
• Online Access: http://www.nmnhs.com/historia-naturalis-bulgarica/article.php?id=000422000272018

The Srebarna Nature Reserve is a wetland with great conservation value. The dispersal of aquatic bugs in it has not been studied earlier. Acquiring more data about the aquatic bug’s species composition and dispersal activity is a prerequisite for future studies on phenology or faunistic studies of the group in the wetland. In the present paper, aquatic bugs attracted to UV light near the Srebarna Nature Reserve were quantified. A total of 4589 individuals of aquatic bugs (Heteroptera, Nepomorpha) were collected during 11 nights of light trapping. Dispersing aquatic bugs were almost exclusively Corixidae (4587 specimens, 13 species in five genera), except for two Notonectidae species. Eleven species, collected during the study have not been registered previously in the Srebarna Nature Reserve. The activity peak of dispersal was registered during the first hour after sunset. Females prevailed in the four most abundant species. The changes in the dispersal activity of the most common species — Sigara striata (Linnaeus, 1758), were explained (to a great extent) by changes in air temperature, atmospheric pressure and wind speed.