Abundance and Flight Activity of Some Histeridae, Hydrophilidae and Scarabaeidae (Coleoptera) in Southern Quebec, Canada

We collected adult beetles with four unbaited flight intercept traps in southern Quebec, from early May through late October, in 1987, 1988 and 1989. We captured a total of 146 Histeridae (9 species), 668 Hydrophilidae (29 species) and 428 Scarabaeidae (25 species), including 25 Holarctic or introduced species in North America, mainly non-forest hydrophilids and scarabs.The Sphaeridiinae and Aphodiinae represented, respectively, 78% of hydrophilid catches and 86% of scarab captures. We suggest that adults of Aphodius prodromus, the most common scarab species, are generalist detritivores. Overwintered adults of this species, mainly females, flew in spring, and new generation adults occurred mainly in October. We also studied the seasonal flight activity of three histerid species (Aeletes politus, Geomysaprinus obsidianus, Margarinotus lecontei), ten hydrophilid species (Anacaena prob. lutescens, Cercyon analis, C. assecla, C. haemorrhoidalis, C. lateralis, C. minusculum, C. pygmaeus, Cryptopleurum minutum, Helophorus orientalis, Hydrobius fuscipes) and three other scarab species (Aphodius granarius, A. rufipes, Dichelonyx albicollis). All these species are probably univoltine in southern Quebec.