The insect communities in the Parque Regional de la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares (Central Spain): conservation status

Abstract

The Parque Regional de la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares (PRCAM) is a protected area at the North of Madrid. Eight sampling sites were selected representing different ecosystems and land uses. In these sites we studied the communities of four insect groups: Collembolla, Chrysomelida, Curculionoidea and Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea. The objetive of the study was to assess the conservation status of the Park ecosystems and the paralelism of the results in these four insect groups. The results show that the Park ecosystems are heavily disturbed. The lowland areas being damaged to a greater extent. On the other hand the four groups have a different behaviour in similar conditions. This shows the importance of gathering information from different groups in order to assess or manage the biological diversity of an area.