| Summary: | Fungi are part of the diet of larvae and adults of the order Coleoptera; however, it is a resource that is infrequently used as an attractant for the collection of these insects. In this work, mycetophilous beetle assemblages were analyzed in four localities located along an altitudinal gradient in the central region of Chiapas, Mexico. Pitfall traps baited with the fruiting body of the fungus Agaricus bisporus previously fermented were used for beetle sampling. A total of 208 individuals comprising 27 species of the families Scarabaeidae (Scarabaeinae), Silphidae, and Staphylinidae were captured. Species diversity was low compared to other attractants used for sampling these insect groups, however, a high representativeness of species was obtained. In general, diversity is related to increasing altitude, but the response was different among families. Scarabaeinae was better represented in the lower altitude sites, the opposite case occurred with Staphylinidae that predominated in the higher altitude sites, this allowed differentiation of three beetle communities along the gradient (Dβ = 2.77). Despite the low prevalence of species and their abundances, these results indicate that these types of attractants can be used by diverse species and are likely to function as an alternate source to segregate demand competition and food partition when preferred resources are scarce. Offering a diverse number of potential food resources would allow to establish the trophic spectrum of species in a more realistic and objective way. Therefore, this type of attractant can be used to capture beetles in biodiversity inventories allowing to obtain more accurate results on local insect diversity.
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