Using aerial fruit-baited traps with different naturally fermented baits to survey scarab beetles in the Amazon rainforest

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scarab beetles present a great diversity of life history, in which countless species can act as pollinators, decomposers of organic matter and severe agricultural pests. Different methods have been used to capture adult specimens from different scarab beetle subfamilies in natural or anthropogenic landscapes. Here, we evaluated the preference of scarab beetles for different naturally fermented baits in the Amazon rainforest. We used typical aerial traps baited with banana, banana + sugarcane juice, pineapple, pineapple + sugarcane juice, sugarcane juice, or water, every 2 weeks from July to October 2016 in five sites of the Amazon rainforest. We collected 177 individuals belonging to four subfamilies (Cetoniinae, Dynastinae, Rutelinae, and Scarabaeinae), 14 genera, and 22 species of scarab beetles. Between the different tested baits, sugarcane juice alone showed to be sufficient and efficient to capture more individuals and species of scarab beetles in the Amazon rainforest. Therefore, we encourage its use in composing baits in aerial fruit-baited traps, since it is low-cost and easier to use than when combined with fruits. Finally, our study brought a list of scarab beetle species sampled using a method that is still little used in the survey of scarab beetle diversity in Amazon rainforest.