Arthropods associated with the crown of Mauritia flexuosa (Arecaceae) palm trees in three different environments from Brazilian Cerrado.

Canopy arthropods, mainly from palm trees, are little known in the Brazilian Cerrado. In order to describe the arthropod community structure associated with the crown of Mauritia flexuosa (Arecaceae), we sampled 150 palm trees in six "veredas" of the Federal District, Brazil, in wild, rural and periurban areas in the rainy season. The arthropods within abandoned bird nests, mammal refuges, leaves and organic matter were manually collected, preserved in ethanol 70% and separated by order, family, morphospecies and feeding guilds. Stem height and diameter of the palm crowns were measured and leaves and bird nests were counted. We collected 3,862 arthropods, from 15 orders, 45 families and 135 morphospecies. The most abundant orders were Coleoptera (28.6%), Blattodea (21.8%), Collembola (11.4%) and Hemiptera (10.2%). The families Blaberidae, Entomobryidae, Reduviidae, Oniscidae, Staphylinidae, Carabidae and Formicidae, represented 82.1% of all individuals collected. The majority of morphospecies was not abundant, 71 (52.6%) were represented by less than 1 individual/tree. Coleopterans accounted for the highest number of morphospecies (43.7%) followed by Araneae (20.0%). The analysis of the arthropod feeding guilds showed prevalence of predatory/hematophagous ones (36.0%). Arthropod richness and abundance presented smaller values for periurban environment. The number of bird nests presented positive correlation with abundance and richness; this was not found when considering the measurements of the palm trees. The importance of M. flexuosa for the maintenance of the arthropod fauna of the "veredas" in Cerrado biome is discussed.