Composition and diversity of ground-dwelling arthropods at Chiayi Agricultural long-term ecological research site in the Southern Taiwan

Abstract

In this study, the canola oil and alcohol were used as attractants in pitfall traps to help collect ground-dwelling arthropods. Two small agricultural long-term ecological research fields at Chiayi Agricultural Experimental Station were chosen to execute sampling activities. There were 14,509 individuals of 182 species (including morphospecies) in 18 taxa in the collections. The most abundant taxon was Hymenoptera, followed by Coleoptera, Collembola, Diptera, Orthoptera, and Acari. Regardless to the difference of the sampling fields, canola oil trap was significantly attractive to ants (Formicidae, Hymenoptera). On the other hand, the alcohol trap was more effective in attracting the Coleoptera. According to the diversity analysis, the results indicated that the diversity indexes were affected by the main effect for attractant. In addition, the interactions between the farming operation and samplings and between the attractant and samplings were also factors to influence the diversity of ground-dwelling arthropods in the long-term ecological research site of Chiayi Station.