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.
Highlights
Most work on insect biodiversity relies on sampling populations in nature
The Alpine Malaise Trap design (Fig. 2) replaces gauze or polyester panels in traditional malaise traps with two interlocking Perspex panes set at right angles, forming a cross with four intercepting faces, after Hines and Heikkenen (1977) and Wilkening (1981)
Our traps were demonstrably robust to the weather conditions prevailing in the Tasmanian highlands
Summary
Most work on insect biodiversity relies on sampling populations in nature. The nature of the Tasmanian alpine environments is harsh. The Southernmost region of Australia, the island of Tasmania, is the most mountainous with large areas of rugged alpine environments (Fig. 1). Wind pruned vegetation densely covers rocky, saturated soils. The winter season may see intermittent snow cover for several months, exposing plants to intense UV-B radiation in winter as well as summer. Among the multitude of different insect-trapping methods, few are well suited to the Tasmanian alpine environment
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
