Reshetnyak D. Consortive ties of Harpalus rufipes (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in the conditions of the steppe Prydniprov'ya

The object is the individual and population-based consortium of Harpalus rufipes of the steppe Prydniprov'ya. The target is to identify the consortive ties of Harpalus rufipes (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in the conditions of the steppe Prydniprov'ya. Methods are geobotanical description of test sites, soil-zoological methods of field studies of invertebrates, microbial intestinal studies, methods of laboratory insect keepeng, morphometric methods, methods of the one-dimensional and multivariate statistics. H. rufipes is inherent in a wide range of trophic ties with plant and animal food items. H. rufipes consumes 68 of the 173 species studied. Depending on the size and mass of the prey phytophagous, phytosaphrophagous and necrophagous organisms dominate in the diet of the beetle. The composition of heterotrophic consortium of H. rufipes in the steppe Prydniprov'ya includes for the first time found in the Ukraine five species of gregarines, two species of neogregarines, four species of nematodes, one species of cestodes, two species of mites and one species of fungus. It is revealed significantly higher resistance of the body proportions of H. rufipes, than its absolute size, for most of the linear characteristics a significant sexual dimorphism is recorded. H. rufipes lives in most types of forests of the steppe Prydniprov'ya, where the limiting factors are the projective cover of herbaceous plants, litter thickness, the texture of the soil, its moisture, mineralization of the soil and the number of ants. Ecological features of populations of H. rufipes which include almost universal accommodation, numerous trophic ties with a wide spectrum of plant and animal prey, tolerance to many types of single cellular and multicellular parasites, morphological variability allows H. rufipes to distribute in most types of natural and anthropogenically transformed ecosystems of the steppe Prydniprov'ya. The sphere is the education process.