Effect of Crop Type and Production Systems (Conventional and Organic Agriculture) on the Density of Rove Beetles (Staphylinidae: Coleoptera) in the Punjab, Pakistan

The density of staphylinid species is affected by crop type and production system. A study was made to compare the effect of conventional system with organic agricultural system on rove beetle fauna regarding the crop type. The study was conducted for a period of two years at eight different localities of Punjab province of Pakistan and five different collection methods i.e., pitfall trap, light trap, flight intercept trap, Berlese funnel trap and sweep net were used for collecting the rove beetles. The population (abundance) and diversity of rove beetles were taken as dependent variables in separate generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). In the GLMM, time (yr) was found non-significant random effect but locality as random effect was significant. In GLMM, with locality as random effect, the fixed effects crop type and soil moisture showed significant effect with population (abundance) as response and fixed effect system was also significant in the model with diversity as response variable. Generally, the farm yard manure had more positive effect on the density of different species than inorganic fertilizers. Hence, the density of all species was more prominent in the organic management system than in the conventional one.