Differential efficacy of edaphic traps for monitoring arthropods diversity in subtropical regions

Abstract

Installation of traps in the agricultural field is an economically important and cheaper technique to observe arthropods diversity. Cost-effective ecological monitoring of arthropods by traps has been gaining interest in the field of environmental entomology since last few decades. This study explains the effectiveness of four different types of traps (pitfall, yellow-sticky, pan and barrier traps) to monitor the arthropod diversity in summer and winter seasons. These traps were installed in different mango orchards located in Punjab, Pakistan. diversity of captured arthropods was 1.5 times higher in summer than in winter season. However, among the traps, pitfall traps were most effective than others for trapping edaphic arthropods in both seasons. The pan traps were found most effective in the summer season, while sticky traps in the winter season. The pitfall traps exhibited highest taxa richness index values (8.00 for summer and 5.00 for winter season), while the lowest values were recorded for barrier traps (5.00 for summer and 3.00 for winter season). Moreover, the pitfall were the most effective traps for the capture or collection of Arachnida, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera and other arthropods. The PVC barrier and sticky traps were found most effective for Dipteran and Hemipteran's insects, respectively, and hence, are recommended for the ecological monitoring of these arthropod groups in future studies.