Fauna and Biodiversity of Anthocoridae in Mashhad Region

The family of Anthocoridae, which is known as flower bugs, are small predators and feed on many different species of injurious arthropods. The present study made use of white tray, sweeping net and lamp trap for faunistic study of Anthocoridae. Random sampling was carried out in Mashhad weekly during 2006-2007. Six species and 1 subspecies belonging to Anthocorinae (Oriini and Anthocorini) were identified as follows:Orius vicinus (Ribaut, 1923), O. niger (Wolff, 1811), O. horvathi (Reuter, 1884), Anthocoris nemoralis (Fabricius, 1794), A. pilosus (Jakovlev, 1877), A. guentheri Pericart, 2007 andTemnostethusredovinus parilis (Horvath, 1891). In order to assess biodiversity of these species, the dominance index and diversity index (Shannon-Wiener Index and Simpson's Index) were calculated by using the specimens collected by white tray. Among these species, Orius vicinus was determined as predominant species of Anthocoridae in Mashhad.