An Alpine Malaise trap

Abstract

The Southernmost region of Australia, the island of Tasmania, is also the most mountainous, with large areas of rugged alpine environments. This entomological frontier offers a distinct suite of insects for study including many endemic taxa. However, harsh weather, remote locations and rough terrain represent an environment too extreme for many existing insect trap designs. We report here on the design and efficacy of a new Alpine Malaise Trap (AMT), which can be readily hybridised with several other common insect trapping techniques. Advantages of the design include its light weight and portability, low cost, robustness, rapid deployment and long autonomous sampling period. The AMT was field tested in the Tasmanian highlands (AUST) in 2017. A total of 16 orders were collected. As expected, samples are dominated by Diptera. However, the trap also collected a range of flightless taxa including endemic and apterous species, Apteropanorpatasmanica – closest relative of the boreal, snow scorpionflies (Boreidae). Combined and compared with other trap types the Alpine Malaise Traps captured less specimens but of a greater diversity than passive sticky traps, while drop traps captured less specimens but a greater diversity than AMT. The statistical potential of the catch is discussed.

Biodiversity and Spatiotemporal Variation of Longhorn Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Tropical Forest of Thailand

“…We sorted only the target insects (longhorn beetles). The remaining non-target insects including three predominant insects (represented about 95% of total specimens) belong to the order Diptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and other minor orders are also collected same as other previous reports [ 66 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 ]. We classified these non-target insects into the order or family and kept them in the good condition under low temperature at the Entomology section, Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, where open and welcome for all entomologists who interests in using the material for study.…”

The half century impact of fire on invertebrates in fire‐sensitive vegetation

“…The deployment of both in combination is detailed in Henry et al . (2018). Vacuuming occurred in a 2 × 2 m quadrat adjacent to the aerial traps.…”

“…The AMT is a squat, rigid, perspex Malaise trap, with a small upper collection chamber coated with Tanglefoot™ adhesive (Henry et al . 2018). The CD trap (adapted from Bar‐Ness et al .…”

“…The AMT is a squat, rigid, perspex Malaise trap, with a small upper collection chamber coated with Tanglefoot TM adhesive (Henry et al 2018). The CD trap (adapted from Bar-Ness et al 2011) is a passive, aerial sampling technique with the same collection dimensions as the AMT.…”

“…The CD trap (adapted from Bar-Ness et al 2011) is a passive, aerial sampling technique with the same collection dimensions as the AMT. The deployment of both in combination is detailed in Henry et al (2018). Vacuuming occurred in a 2 9 2 m quadrat adjacent to the aerial traps.…”