New Litter Trap Devices Outperform Pitfall Traps for Studying Arthropod Activity

Ruiz-Lupión, Dolores; Pascual, Jordi; Melguizo‐Ruiz, Nereida; Verdeny-Vilalta, Oriol; Moya-Laraño, Jordi

doi:10.3390/insects10050147

Cited by 19 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 31 publications

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“…Insects moving on the soil surface fall into the cup and are killed by a preservation liquid. To enhance sampling efficiency, improved approaches such as cul-de-sac traps, basket traps, and others [1,6] exist; however, these methods are still not widespread.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting Soil Microarthropods with a Camera-Supported Trap

Flórián¹,

Gránicz²,

Gergócs³

et al. 2020

Insects

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There is an increasing need to monitor activity and population growth of arthropods; however, this is a time-consuming and financially demanding process. Using sensors to detect arthropods in the field can help to follow their dynamics in time. Improving our earlier device, we developed a new camera-supported probe to detect soil microarthropods. An opto-electronic sensor ring detects the caught microarthropod individuals what activates a camera. The camera takes pictures of a specimen when it arrives in the camera chamber. A vacuum device was built into the probe which pumps up the specimen from the probe to a sample container. Here, we describe the construction and operation of the probe. We investigated the precision of the process in a laboratory experiment using living microarthropods and evaluated the accuracy of the probes in a semi-natural investigation when environmental noise was present. Under semi-natural conditions, the percentages of success, i.e., the photographed specimens compared to the caught ones, were between 60% and 70% at the investigated taxa. The automatic camera shooting helped in distinguishing insects from irrelevant detections while collecting the trapped insects allowed species-level determination. This information together serves as a basis for the automatic visual recognition of microarthropod species.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting Soil Microarthropods with a Camera-Supported Trap

Flórián¹,

Gránicz²,

Gergócs³

et al. 2020

Insects

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Pitfall trapping outperforms other methods for surveying ground-dwelling large-bodied alpine invertebrates

Bertoia,

Murray,

Robertson

et al. 2023

J Insect Conserv

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Appropriate sampling methods are essential for monitoring and managing all wildlife. There is limited information on how to monitor ground-dwelling invertebrates in the alpine zone compared to more commonly studied lower-elevation habitats. We aim to understand the strengths, weaknesses, and cost-effectiveness of invertebrate survey methods when deployed in the alpine zone. We tested four methods on the South Island of New Zealand (Aotearoa): pitfall traps, tracking tunnels, visual surveys, and trail cameras. We focused on methods for ground-dwelling large-bodied invertebrates, a group most likely to be impacted by introduced mammalian predators. Pitfall traps and trail cameras were practical methods for surveying alpine invertebrates. Tracking tunnels only reliably detected large wētā (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae), as other invertebrates were too light to leave distinguishable tracks. Visual surveys did not generate enough observations to be considered a successful method. We found no difference in the total abundance or easily recognised taxonomic groups detected by pitfall traps and trail cameras. Trail cameras detected fewer wētā compared to tracking tunnels and pitfall traps. Of the successful methods, pitfall traps were the most cost-effective, followed by tracking tunnels and trail cameras. Tracking tunnels were the fastest to install and required the least processing time, followed by pitfall traps and trail cameras. We recommend using pitfall traps to survey large-bodied alpine ground-dwelling invertebrates to better understand population trends or community composition. This method was consistent across all alpine habitat types and has the potential to be an effective method to inform conservation monitoring and management programmes. Implications for insect conservation Monitoring is vital to understand how invertebrates respond to change and evaluate conservation management program outcomes. This study provides practical information on potential monitoring tools for invertebrates in the alpine zone and recommends pitfall traps to survey large-bodied alpine invertebrates.

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