Differential Capture Modalities of Insect Traps Produce Contrasting Biodiversity Patterns

Abstract

Describing insect community and population trends is essential to their conservation. To assess insect populations and communities and identify potential drivers of change in insect populations, we often need to measure in a variety of ways and in a variety of ecosystems. Insect sampling is not standardized: data is frequently collected via different types of insect traps with different targets and modes of capture to sample the insect community. However, different traps may identify contrasting ecological signals, depending on their structure, deployment, and their effective range, and further, these differences may interact with the habitats they are deployed in. Here, we aim to assess the consistency of biodiversity patterns produced from different trapping methods deployed in array across several habitats. We investigated three trapping methods: an ant bait trap, a malaise trap, and a fermentation trap. We deployed these traps in a suburban forested area and at a restored forest. We computed richness and relative abundance of insects captured in each trap and assessed community compositional differences between traps and habitats. We found that each trap type produced differential patterns of richness, abundance, and composition from each other, and these patterns also varied between sites for most trap types. The contrasting patterns observed among traps is likely due to differing effective capture ranges of each trap; traps with smaller effective capture ranges were more sensitive to local habitat conditions than traps with broader effective capture ranges.