author(s)
Mostafa Slim, Najoua Zouaki and Mohamed Fadli

abstract
The present work was dealt with the faunistic study of the spatial distribution of the Coleoptera population of three areas of the Gharb plain: the Mamora forest, the biological reserve of Sidi Boughaba and the Merja of Fouarat. The entomological population was dominated by the family Scarabaeidae which was the most represented and well adapted to different climatic conditions. The family Tenebrionidae which was the second of the most speciose groups of Coleoptera was principally sabulicolous. The species richness and abundance of Coleoptera in different types of habitats (The Mamora forest, the biological reserve of Sidi Boughaba and the Merja of Fouarat) and their relationship with the environment were discussed. A total of 999 Coleoptera belonging to 11 families and 28 species were collected. Thus, an analysis of similarity of the site which was based on species richness showed a spatial variation. Then, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and the indices of regularity were calculated. The most abundant taxa were based on the Scarabaeus cicatricosus, Tentyria maroccana, Calathus melanocephalus, Buprestis octoguttata, Akis tingitana, Carabus sp, Aethiessa floralis and the Scarabaeus cicatricosus. More importantly, the hierarchical classification highlighted faunal affinities between sites which revealed two main groups. Also, the temperature, the precipitations, the soil organic matter content, and the nature of vegetation appeared to be the major drivers that structure the Coleoptera assemblages and influence the abundance as well as the species richness. These results suggested that the habitat heterogeneity was the predictor of the Coleoptera assemblages, but the species richness could be predicted at the landscape scale using the abiotic characteristics.