The insects were sampled by pitfall traps,
distributed in two parallel 200-m transects, 10-m
apart (Bedford & Usher, 1994). Each transect
spanned the habitat boundary, with 100 m in the
crop field and 100 m in the forest fragment. Four
traps were set close to each other (1 m) in the
crop, at its boundary with the forest fragment, and
from this point on additional traps were installed
at 10-m intervals. Sampling was biweekly during
the crop seasons, and monthly otherwise. At each
sampling date, traps were set and remained in the
field for one week. Beetles were preserved for
identification at the Insect Ecology Laboratory,
at Unesp, Jaboticabal Campus. The carabids and
staphylinids were identified to species level in the
Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios
(APTA). Beetle communities were assessed by the
Shannon-Wiener and Morisita indices (Brower
et al., 1998). Species with the largest abundance,
dominance, frequency and constancy faunistic
indices (Moraes et al., 2003) were designated as
dominant.