Comparing the attractiveness of banana and peanut butter lures for monitoring wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha, White) (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae) populations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Non-lethal monitoring of insects for conservation purposes can benefit from an effective lure. The use of food-based lures for monitoring is limited as they tend to attract non-target species in addition to the target species. Wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha) are routinely monitored using tracking tunnels baited with peanut butter. While peanut butter is attractive to wētāpunga, it is also commonly used to monitor several other species such as rats and mice, which are known predators of wētā. To investigate if there is a lure that is more attractive than peanut butter, we compared the attractiveness of peanut butter and banana lures to captively bred wētāpunga at the Auckland Zoo breeding facility. Wētāpunga were tested within their home enclosures and presented with a peanut butter or banana lure in a petri dish, in random order, together with an empty, control petri dish. Thirty seven enclosures housing juvenile wētāpunga (each containing 2–20 individuals) and three individually housed adult wētāpunga were tested. We assessed the attractiveness of each lure by comparing the number of approaches to each lure, and the latency to approach a lure. There was no significant difference in the number of approaches between the peanut butter and banana treatments or latency to approach a lure. Therefore, both peanut butter and banana may be equally effective lures for wētāpunga monitoring.