Subterranean Pitfall Traps: Is It Worth Including Them in Your Ant Sampling Protocol?

Abstract

The use of subterranean traps is a relatively novel method to sample ants, and few studies have evaluated its performance relative to other methods. We collected ants in forests, savannas, and crops in central Brazil using subterranean pitfall traps and conventional pitfall traps placed on the soil surface. Sampling duration, soil depth, and sprinkling vegetal oil around traps all tended to affect the number of species found in subterranean traps. Sixteen percent of the species collected in subterranean traps were unique, and most of these had cryptobiotic morphology (i.e., were truly hypogaeic species). Surprisingly, however, subterranean and conventional traps were similarly efficient at capturing cryptobiotic species. Furthermore, subterranean traps captured far fewer species in total than conventional traps (75 versus 220 species), and this was true in all three habitats sampled. Sampling completeness increased very little using a combination of conventional and subterranean traps than using just conventional traps.

Diversidade e riqueza de formigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) em remanescentes de Mata Atlântica na Bacia Hidrográfica do Alto Tietê, SP

“…Porém, outras técnicas de coleta devem ser empregadas nas áreas de floresta do Alto Tietê para registrar táxons especialistas da região. Por exemplo, a lista de espécie apresentada neste trabalho deve ser acrescentada Acanthostichus quadratus, que foi registrada no Parque Natural Municipal Francisco Affonso de Mello usando armadilhas subterrâneas (Morini et al 2004), ou então, Labidus mars (Zara et al 2003); ambas são espécies criptobióticas (Pacheco & Vasconcelos 2012).…”

The Potential Role of Scattered Trees for Ant Conservation in an Agriculturally Dominated Neotropical Landscape

“…which had their openings leveled off with the soil surface, whereas the second consisted of closed plastic containers (250 ml vol.) — with four 1 cm holes made in the side — that were buried to a depth of 20 cm (see Pacheco & Vasconcelos , for a detailed description of the subterranean trap). Four conventional and two subterranean pitfall traps, arranged in a 4 × 4 m grid, were installed beneath the crowns of each of our study trees.…”

Effects of land‐use changes on ecosystem services: decrease in ant predation in human‐dominated landscapes in central Brazil

“…We used conventional pitfall traps to sample ants that forage on the soil surface and subterranean traps to sample ants that forage belowground (Pacheco & Vasconcelos, 2012). Ant sampling was conducted once in each site between December 2008 and March 2009.…”

“…The conventional pitfall traps consisted of 300-ml plastic cups, buried so that the opening of the trap was level with the soil surface. Subterranean traps consisted of closed 250-ml plastic containers, with four 1-cm and four 0.5-cm holes on their side, buried to a depth of 20 cm (Pacheco & Vasconcelos, 2012). Both types of traps were filled to one-third of their volume with a mixture of ethanol (70%) and glycerine.…”