Abstract: In May-October, 2010, an investigation was conducted on the composition and nutritional structure of insect community in Luhuatai wetland of Yinchuan, Ningxia. A total of 10578 insect individuals were collected, belonging to 217 species, 70 families, and 12 orders. According to the trophic level and feeding mode, three nutritional classes and seven functional groups were established. The temporal dynamics of the diversity in species, functional group, and nutritional class and the insect community stability were analyzed. The bud-eating insects, piercing-sucking insects, and neutral insects were the dominant functional groups in the insect community, accounting for 16.01%, 32.35%, and 33.33% of the total individuals, respectively. The dominant insect groups were aphids and chironomids, and their individual numbers occupied 10.57% and 21.27% of the total, respectively. In different seasons, the basal species of the insect community had the highest abundance, followed by the intermediate species, and the top species. The abundance of the dominant insect groups of different functional groups changed obviously with season. The species diversity and nutritional class diversity had significant correlations with the functional group diversity (P<0.01), and the functional group biodiversity and nutritional class diversity had the similar temporal variation trend as the species biodiversity. The relative stability of the insect community exhibited greater fluctuation during the period of this investigation, but the recovery stability became stronger with the seasonal succession.

Key words: stable isotope, Sebastiscus marmoratus, marine ranching, Ma’an Archipelago., feeding habit