Lagodekhi - FR/221/7-110/13

Biodiversity of Hymenopterans in Lagodekhi Protected Areas.

The aim of the project is to describe hymenoptern species diversity and community composition in relation with elevation and habitat types in Lagodekhi national park.

INTRODUCTION

Hymenoptera is one of the most divers insect orders. Many of them are important pollinators, successful natural enemies and others important pests of forestry and agriculture. The lack of information on hymenoptera compositions in our country, along with the significance of faunistic collections as a basic scientific resource in biodiversity assessment were the main reasons to conduct this study.

The aim of this project is describe the species diversity of hymenopterans in Lagodekhi National Park (LNP). 

Map of study area

In particular we plan is to

> determine species diversity and community composition of the study area

> relate species richness and distribution with elevation and other habitat characters

> determine the seasonal activity and temporal abundance distributions of species 

> Increasing the awareness of the staff of the National Park and local community for the importance and the identity of hymenopterans and insects in general of LNP

In 2014 we have conducted extensive field sampling by means of Malaise traps. At different elevations (from 570 up to the 2585) we install seven malaise traps and checked them every 10 days during  whole vegetation season. Malaise traps are powerful tools that can collect thousands of insects other than hymenopterans. We are sorting and managing all the collecting animals as well. As a result we collected ca. 150 sample which. Great deal of them are sorted and the identification of the species is in progress. With insects, we have also made a complete inventory of vegetation in each sampling station.