Do covers influence the capture efficiency of pitfall traps?

Sascha Buchholz,Karsten Hannig

doi:10.14411/eje.2009.083

Abstract

Pitfall traps are widely used in terrestrial ecology to capture ground-dwelling arthropods. In order to determine the effect of covers placed over pitfall traps on their efficiency at capturing of spiders, carabid beetles and ants, four types of pitfall trap were sunk into the ground at dry grassland sites: three pitfall traps were not covered, three were covered with white, three with green and three with black plastic covers. The total catch was 9,364 spiders, 4,352 carabid beetles and 4,157 ants. The distribution of species of spiders and carabid beetles, and the total catch of spiders, carabid beetles and ants did not differ significantly among the four types of trap. Therefore, covers do not appear to affect the capture efficiency of pitfall traps.

Highlights

Dahl (1896, 1907) was the first to describe a trap for collecting ground-dwelling arthropods
Summarising, neither the number of spider species nor the total catch of spiders, carabid beetles or ants differed significantly among the four trap types compared in this study
This indicates that covers do not affect the capture efficiency of pitfall traps

Summary

Introduction

Dahl (1896, 1907) was the first to describe a trap for collecting ground-dwelling arthropods. Pitfall traps consist of cups or jars containing preserving and killing fluids that are embedded flush with the ground surface. Despite criticisms (Bombosch, 1962; Topping & Sunderland, 1992; Topping, 1993), pitfall traps are well suited for investigating the occurrence and abundance of ground-dwelling arthropods, such as spiders and beetles (Tretzel, 1955; Luff, 1975; Adis, 1979; Churchill, 1993). Apart from the design of the trap (Luff, 1975; Wagge, 1985) many features may influence their catching efficiency. Several studies compared the influence of different fluids used as killing agents and preservatives (Luff, 1968; Greenslade & Greenslade, 1971; Holopainen & Varis, 1986; Pekár, 2002; Schmidt et al, 2006; Jud & Schmidt-Entling, 2008)

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Conclusion