Heteroptera (Insecta: Hemiptera) of the peat bogs of Belarusian Lakeland

Abstract

The first overview on the Heteroptera of peat bogs of the Belarusian Lakeland is presented. Five natural oligotrophic peat bogs were studied in 2012–2014 by entomological sweep-net. A total of almost 2,612 true bugs were sampled, representing 83 species of 13 families. Ten species (12.11–36.72% of the individuals) were tyrphobiontic or tyrphophilous. The five most abundant species represented 71.39–82.30% of the individuals. The most common species were Stictopleurus crassicornis (14.56–59.63%) and Stephanitis oberti (10.25–36.21%). The number of individuals of adult Heteroptera in peat bogs was low in spring and high in July-August. The natural peat bog offered favorable conditions to phytophagous (72.29%) polyphagous (60.00%) true bugs species. The most preferred host plants were ericales shrubs.