INVERTEBRATE MORPHOSPECIES AS SURROGATES FOR SPECIES - A CASE-STUDY

Environmental monitoring and conservation evaluation in terrestrial ha bitats may be enhanced by the use of invertebrate inventories, but tax onomic and logistic constraints frequently encountered during conventi onal taxonomic treatment have greatly restricted their use. To overcom e this problem we suggest that nonspecialists may be used to classify invertebrates to morphospecies without compromising scientific accurac y. To test this proposition, large pitfall and litter samples of ants, beetles, and spiders from four forest types were sorted to morphospec ies by a nonspecialist and to species by specialists. These data were used to generate morphospecies and species inventories and to estimate richness (alpha diversity), and turnover (beta diversity), informatio n frequently used in the above activities. Our results show that the e stimates of richness of ants and spiders varied little between morphos pecies and species inventories. Differences between estimates of beetl e richness were largely influenced by errors of identification in two families, Curculionidae and Staphylinidae. But morphospecies and speci es inventories yielded identical ranking of forest type using richness . Turnover was assessed by sample ordination which revealed similar cl usters regardless of the type of inventory. Analysis of similarities o f assemblages of ants and beetles showed significant differences betwe en all forest types. Spider assemblages showed a lower level of discri mination. The assessment of turnover was consistent among inventories but different between the major taxa. Our findings suggest that morpho species may be used as surrogates for species in some environmental mo nitoring and conservation, in particular when decisions are guided by estimates of richness and the assessment of turnover.