Coleoptera as Bioindicators

The terrestrial Coleoptera present in a representative environment of Chaco Serrano, preserved and anthropized, in El Calvario, Capital, Catamarca province, were identified; simple biological metrics: richness, abundance and dominance, and ecological indices: Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Simpson's dominance and similarity index, were determined for the Coleoptera community found in both environments and the variations of simple metrics and ecological indices between the Coleoptera communities in the selected sites were analyzed. In the natural environment, the Coleoptera community was richer and more abundant, which was confirmed by the values obtained for the simple biological metrics: richness (21 families), abundance (406 individuals) and dominance (five abundant families). Families exclusive to the natural environment accounted for 21.74%; families exclusive to the anthropized environment accounted for 8.69%.