Objective:

To evaluate the diversity of the entomofauna community, according to its biological function in the forage tree-basis pasture association in Cuban animal husbandry.

Materials and Methods:

Two animal husbandry agroecosystems were evaluated, with different productive aims, composed by the association of Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit cv. Peru with Megathyrsus maximus (Jacq.) B.K. Simon & S.W.L. Jacobs cv. Likoni. In both, from the inventory of the insect community, the following ecological indexes were calculated: species richness, Margalef richness, Simpson’s dominance, Shannon-Wiener diversity and equitability, as alpha diversity, and at the same time, Morisita-Horn index, as beta diversity, through the programs Species Diversity & Richness 3.02 and SIMIL, respectively.

Results:

The values of the Margalef and Shannon’s indexes, regarding phytophagans and beneficial insects, in both areas, were higher in the herbaceous stratum (6,138-6,365; 4,471-4,697 and 1,902-2,238; 2,327-2,394) with regards to the tree stratum (4,156-4,706; 4,132-4,158 and 0,722-0,851; 1,721-2,521), which indicated an abundant richness of species and moderate diversity. The equitability of the insect species was also higher in the herbaceous stratum, because there was trend to all of them being equally abundant. Meanwhile, the similarities among the insect communities, according to the Morisita Horn index, showed evident similarity among species, with more than 70 % of coincidence among phytophagans and beneficial insects in each stratum.

Conclusions:

The ecological indexes showed that there is numerous and similar diversity of insects in the sampled areas, with higher values, although not representative, for the herbaceous stratum compared with the tree one. In addition, due to the compatibility between L. leucocephala and M. maximus, the composition, structure and functioning of this insect community can be better understood.

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