Ecological Properties of Epigeal Invertebrate Communities in Green Areas in the City of Plovdiv. Part 2 - The Hills of Plovdiv

The aim of the present work is to characterize and compare the epigeal invertebrates communities in three of the Plovdiv hills - „Mladezhki hulm“ Hill, „Hulm Bunardzhik“ Hill and „Danov hulm“ Hill. The most numerous is the community of epigeal invertebrates from the „Mladezhki hulm” Hill (922 individuals from 37 taxa), followed by „Hulm Bunardzhik” Hill (876 individuals from 40 taxa), where the community has the highest taxonomic richness, and the most poor on individuals and taxa was the community at „Danov hulm” Hill (493 individuals of 34 taxa). In the three studied hills, Hymеnoptera, Formicidae predominate, followed by Coleoptera and Diptera, while Aranea occupy significant share in „Danov hulm“ Hill. The epigeal invertebrates community in „Hulm Bunardzhik” Hill is the most distinct, since it contains the highest number of permanent and additional taxa compared to the other two hills and the lowest number of random taxa. The community at „Danov hulm” Hill, is probably the most unstable, which is probably due to the high anthropogenic pressure of this hill. The most diverse by both indices used is the community at „Hulm Bunardzhik” Hill. The communities of epigeal invertebrates from all three studied hills are monodominant.