Investigation on soil invertebrates of Lagina ancient city, Turkey

Abstract

Aim of the study: Lagina is an ancient Carian city located at Turgut village in Yatağan, Muğla. Lagina Hekate used to be a Carian cult site belonging to Stratonikeia ancient city. It has been discovered that the history of the site dates back to the Bronze Age, about 3,000 BC. Local people call the site as Leyne. It is aimed to determine the soil invertebrates of Lagina and its environs, with this study. Material and Methods: Litter and soil samples were collected monthly from Lagina and its environs between September 2017 and March 2018. After collection, the samples were kept in laboratory. Then, the samples were prepared for identification. After that, the samples were examined with microscopes and identified. The available literature sources were used to identification of species. Results: After identification processes, totally 52 invertebrate families of 14 different ordo belonging to Nematoda, Annelida and Arthropoda phyla were found. The following ordo were found in the study area; Rhabditidae, Haplotaxida, Pseudoscorpianida, Oribatida, Mesostigmata, Trombidiformes, Geophilomorpha, Scolopendromorpha, Julida, Isopoda, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Collembola and Diptera. Also, definitions of found families were reviewed, their photographs were taken and world distributions were discussed. The soil diversity has been revealed by determining invertebrates families which living in litter and soil in Lagina Ancient City. Acknowledgements: We would like to thank MSc and PhD students in acarology laboratory, Pamukkale University for their helping. Keywords:Invertebrate, soil, biodiversity, Lagina, Muğla, Turkey