The knowledge of the diversity and distribution of ground arthropods contributes for the development of sustainable agricultural systems. This work was carried out at the Paulista State University, Jaboticabal campus, State of São Paulo, Brazil, during the period from February to April 2004. The objective was to analyse the community of Carabidae, Staphylinidae, Formicidae e Araneae through faunistic indexes, to determine the spatial distribution and interespecific interactions of predominant species in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), corn (Zea mays L.) and rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.). The arthropods were sampled by pitfall traps distributed each 10 m in two transects of 210 m which crossed the rubber trees and advancing 60 m in the crop lines. The fauna was characterized by Shannon-Wiener diversity index, evenness and Morisita similarity index. The differences among the occurrence of predominant species in the habitats were determined by variance analysis, and the interespecific interaction by Pearson correlation. The soybean and corn under no-tillage system provided better structured carabids, ants and spiders communities than the rubber trees. Among 88 captured species, 20 species were predominant and the spatial distribution of them showed that Odontocheila nodicornis (Dejean), Glenus chrysis Gravenhorst, Castianeira sp. and eight ant species were more abundant in the rubber tree compared to soybean and corn. The abundance of the carabids Calosoma granulatum Perty and O. nodicornis decreased with increased density of the formicids Pheidole sp.1 and Odontomachus chelifer Latreille, respectively.
Araneae; Carabidae; Formicidae; biological control; predators; no-tillage
